You stood tall as a paragon of much of what was best in America - integrity, duty, hard work and opportunity; towering over the political landscape just as the World Trade Center once soared over lower Manhattan. Unfortunately, both colossal icons crumbled from the impact of a single tragic hour in Manhattan, leaving a void that has yet to be filled.

A decade ago, you voiced outrage when Madeline Albright asked "[w]hat's the point of having this superb military you're always talking about if we can't use it"; responding contemptuously that "American GIs are not toy soldiers to be moved around on some global game board." Where is your outrage today after American GIs have been sent into a quagmire without sufficient personnel or supplies only to return to deplorable conditions and neglect such as was seen at Walter Reed Army Hospital?