We have said that it is the Nation's policy that Assad must go.

If we want to create an environment for the largest number of new jobs in America... we need to be very careful and circumspect about any new cost or mandate.

We have to be very careful about decisions we make here, because we're talking about tens of millions of individuals.

We need to be careful in the changing world that we have where businesses aren't like businesses were 40 or 50 years ago.

The United States should ratchet up the sanctions and make it clear to Iran that they will not get away with it, and if sanctions do not work, then they have to know that you will be prepared--us, the United States--to take military action.

Do you agree with me that it would be a wise investment to keep the Afghan army at 352,000 at least for a few more years rather than draw them down to 232,000?

He is the individual who said he didn't believe in unilateral sanctions because they don't work and they isolate the United States.

I think it is no accident that the troops are coming home 2 months before this election in Afghanistan.

He is the same Senator who decried the systematic destruction of an American friend by the country of Israel and who said there is a Jewish lobby in this country that gets its way through intimidation, and that results in this Government…

The lack of signature by you runs chills up my spine because I can't imagine not signing a letter like that at a time when it really mattered.

So that means it is worse for us for him to stay and we not be able to achieve our policy.

If the Russians said we want you gone tomorrow, would it matter to Assad? Absolutely.

It is in our national security interest to continue pressure on al Qaeda wherever we find them either by ourselves or through partners.

I wouldn't have one troop in Afghanistan or Iraq without a status of forces agreement, that he was absolutely right to insist on that.

We were one perceived slight or insult away from these guys shooting each other, and we need to have a follow-on force to keep tensions low.

If it becomes unstable and ungoverned, it opens the area, potentially, for terrorists, in order to allow Iraq to become a place where terrorism could be exported.

the one thing that is foremost in my mind is that if their leadership is unable to transfer power in a peaceful manner, that would create conditions that would cause us to, perhaps, revert to sectarian behavior.

The next Secretary of Defense is going to have to deal with a world on fire, and I just believe that the testimony of Senator Hagel was not reassuring.