Senator Joe Manchin on Afghanistan: I Feel Very Much The Same Way, Well Said

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/06/23/sen_manchin_on_mccain_criticism_i_have_common_sense.html

Senator Joe Manchin: Let me just first say I have the utmost respect for Sen. McCain, the sacrifices that he has made, the service that he has given to our country. And he's right, I don't have the experience he's had. What I do have, like most West Virginians, is a little bit of common sense. And enough's enough.

And I've been around my state. I've been overseas twice. In 2006, I was there as governor to thank my troops, National Guard, for the job they were doing. I went back in 2011 as a United States senator. I did not see improvement. If anything, I saw deterioration.

I came to my own conclusion after I had listened to an awful lot of people. I've spoke to the generals and Eikenberry and all the people in charge, and I just came to the conclusion we can no longer continue to spend the billions -- we spent $443 billion to date, on track to spend another $485 [billion], and we've got to tell West Virginians and people around this great country that we can't help their road situation or their bridges or their water or sewer, their children or their seniors or anybody else. It's just not right.

What I'd really like to see is a clarity of the change of mission back to war on terror. I think we have proven you can't hide. However long it takes we'll find you. We've done that with bin Laden. And basically we have the greatest military fighting machine in the world, the greatest special ops people that you ever could imagine, and I've been able to witness that.

So I just think that we can do our job and say, 'Wherever you go…-- I think, by all accounts, I've heard you and Joe so many mornings talk about maybe we have 50 to 100 al-Qaida. That's what I've heard. We don't really know the troop strength or the strength of our enemy as far as Taliban. It could be anywhere from five to 30,000. And yet, as you saw the numbers that you posted, there are 100,000 Americans, billions of dollars in commitment.

Let's go back to the war on terror. Let's go wherever terrorism may be and the people that do us harm or wish to do us harm and go after them. Take care of America, rebuild America. We need to rebuild America, and I'm just concerned that we're getting -- just very, very concerned about the conditions of America right now and my West Virginians.