So if Saddam Hussein kicked you out, you might go to Iran for awhile. That's what happened to him, right?

I think it ought to be that they are spending plenty, and doing it right, because we can't pay forever.

You're not going be around here forever, but we can't do very many more, at least at the cost of this one, for sure.

Aren't we adding more billions to the deficit? More than the White House wants the American people to know about?

Now, the White House has put tens of billions of dollars for continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan off budget.

So have you ruled out the establishment of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq?

We gave unprecedented powers to the administration. I've never known any administration, Republican or Democrat, when the Congress has just said, 'Here, here's a blank check.'

I would think you would have Presidential directives.

My point was that this--the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on these wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not in our budgets when we talk about the size of the budget.

Are there any plans, tentative or otherwise, when that day comes, for us to stay in Iraq?

Islamic extremists are using the Iraqi conflict to fuel Islamic resentment against the West and recruit new terrorists to attack Americans.

I agreed with the President's decision to go forward with the elections at the time he did.

The Vice President repeatedly tried to link Saddam Hussein with 9/11.

You knew the war's going to go on a lot longer.

You said it's beyond your pay grade. Well, unless you exclude the Commander in Chief, there's nothing beyond your pay grade in the Department of Defense; you're the Secretary of Defense, you're the one who's supposed to make that decision.

You've said, and all have said, that we want the Iraqis to be able to take over----

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I wonder if some of the planners were simply listening to some of the rosy scenarios coming out of the administration that somehow we're going to be greeted as liberators when we came in there.