I don't understand that tactic, General.

When Americans confront a catastrophe, either natural or manmade, their government across jurisdictions should be organized and ready to deliver bottled drinking water to dehydrated babies and rescue the aged and infirmed trapped in a…

But I would say roughly you need another 20,000 troops in Iraq.

Let's invite a genuine contest of ideas within our party and with the other party for conservationism, as Ronald Reagan told us, is not a narrow ideology.

Common sense conservatives believe that the government that governs least governs best.

I regret deeply that you seem to think that the status quo and the rate of progress that we are making is acceptable. I think that most Americans do not.

I am of course disappointed that basically you're advocating the status quo here today which I think the American people in the last election said that is not an acceptable condition.

Basically, you're advocating the status quo here today, which I think the American people, in the last election, said, that is not an acceptable question.

I think you can look back and say that more American troops would have been advisable in the earlier stages.

Hope is not a strategy. Hortatory talk about what the Iraqi government must do is getting old. I mean, I have heard over and over again the government must do this. The Iraqi army must do that. Nobody disagrees with that. The brutal fact…

A constructive, bipartisan agreement, to which hopefully the majority of the committee can agree upon.

At some point we have to ask ourselves the question, do they have it in them to forge one country in a common destiny, or is that beyond their capabilities?

What do you believe, General, would be the effect on the sectarian violence in Iraq?

Staying the course is no longer, as far as I'm concerned -- and the American people clearly spoke on it -- a viable option.

I would want to talk to our commanders about whether or not additional forces, including special ops forces, would be helpful.

That is not precipitous. It is a responsible way to change the dynamic in Iraq, to stop the march down the path to full-blown civil war, on which the Iraqis are now embarking.

We should pressure the White House to commence the phased redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq in four to six months.

Does this mean pulling all the troops out now? Of course it doesn't. But it does say we must start redeploying troops as soon as possible.