"Why Is The Cost Of The War Going Up, Jim, When We Should Be Withdrawing Troops?"

[Lautremont]

A Poem
by Jim Nussle


That's a --

I'll tell you what.

I had the chance to talk to Secretary Gates about that,

and we've explored that with him.

Obviously,

that hasn't occurred yet,

and there is,

obviously,

cost to a drawdown.

And sometimes those costs can be surprisingly high.

But what I would like to do is direct you to the Defense Department

to get kind of the specifics on all of that.

I've had a little bit of a rundown,

but if I tried to do it here

off-the-cuff,

I'd probably not do a very good job.

They could probably do

a much better job

of explaining some of the reasons why those costs fluctuate the way they do.

But I think it's a good budget,

and it's one that Congress ought to consider.

Please.