Just yesterday on CNN, Wolf Blitzer asked John Boehner, the leader of the GOP in the House, this question (video on Horse's Mouth):
"The loss in blood, the Americans who are killed every month, how much longer do you think this commitment, this military commitment is going to require?"
And Mr. Boehner responded:
"The investment that we're making today will be a small price if we're able to stop al Qaeda here, if we're able to stabilize the Middle East, it's not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids."
What a stunningly cavalier statement about the lives of the young men and women who serve our country.
Whether you support or oppose the Bush escalation, no American should ever for even a moment think the cost of war is small.
A single life is a large price to pay for any endeavor. Sometimes, in our national interest, we choose to pay that awful price, but we must always make sure that the policy is worthy of it.
Visit our wounded warriors at Walter Reed hospital and ask whether the price they paid was small. Talk to the mothers, fathers, husbands and wives of those who have been killed and ask them to measure the price of war. Young lives stopped short, children who won't have a mother or father there as they grow up, when they graduate, when they get married -- that loss is many things, but it is not small.
Where is Representative Boehner's apology? And where is an Iraq policy equal to our soldiers' tremedous sacrifice?