It has nothing to do with the loyalty, the warrior skills, and the leadership of our men and women in uniform. It has everything to do with the years of lost opportunities and the failures of the Iraqis to step up and take responsibility…

I asked General Petraeus--this was really more of a plea; some have characterized it as a prayer--that we not send our new troops into Baghdad without being fully equipped and ready.

Such sales better not be at the expense of the American soldier or marine.

I have said that I would never cut money for our troops when they are in harm's way, but I sure would threaten to cut money for the Iraqi troops and for the security for the Iraqi leadership.

Give me your assurance that you will not jettison the proposal to increase Army end strength in pursuit of funds to pay for other pressing needs.

The integration of offensive and defensive systems is a major challenge.

the real way to win in Iraq and Afghanistan... is through human bonds and relationships that can be developed with our troops on the ground.

Thank you all for being here today, and congratulations to your families for a job well done this morning, and to all of you.

As we look at other cultures, so very often we want those cultures to look like us almost immediately.

we are going to have to think differently if we want to deny them an impact on our way of life.

Thank you, and congratulations to both of you. I look forward to working with you.

But we would go ahead and continue to support the borders and our assets and the Iraqi Government and the military?

As a former governor, I am a big supporter of our National Guard Forces.

If you would, because I think this question is an important one, particularly as you go back and look at Abu Ghraib.

I appreciate your concern about the use of the stop-loss program because I too think that, while it's a legal way of returning soldiers, it's unpopular and over time and other multiple deployments, lengthy deployments, extensions, will…

I agree with you in not setting an end date to how long our troops will be there, not to send the message to our enemies and adversaries as to what date we plan to withdraw or what our plans are.

Thank you for your service.

I guess I'm still of the opinion that if we have them on the run, we ought to take them out and put whatever forces it takes to do that, because that's going to have a more enduring impact than trying to keep the temporary peace in Iraq…