John McCain

I have no more questions for this incredibly highly qualified group of nominees.

The government has denounced them? Are they part of the coalition of the government?

I hope we will be able to convince all of the American people of the need to base what we do on the recommendations of the most highly qualified people we can find.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you especially for anticipating this issue, because it is an issue of rising personnel costs.

I know you respect the members of the Budget Committee, as I do. But they're not renowned for their expertise on military personnel issues.

Would you agree that one of the principles we should probably adhere to in addressing this issue... would be to make sure that we do not act in a way that would affect existing servicemembers and retirees?

Mr. Carson, in June 2010, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that the Department of Defense (DOD) must significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its business operations stressing the importance of changing how DOD…

Mr. Carson, who should be held accountable if the Army misses either the 2014 or the 2017 deadline?

If confirmed, you would, of course, serve as the Chief Management Officer (CMO) in charge of overseeing... the Army's business transformation and financial improvement efforts.

I do not think many Americans would like to see that movie again which, by the way, there was a few of us predicted would happen.

I would like to see a statement from the administration that our withdrawal will be conditions-based rather than dictated by a certain calendar.

Would it not be nice if the President of the United States said, wait a minute, we are going to gauge our withdrawal as to the conditions on the ground rather than what is now a declared policy of withdrawal by 2017?

I am very optimistic about the new Prime Minister, many of the reforms that are being made.

I also am convinced that unless we have a conditions-based withdrawal, that we will see the Iraqi movie again.

The President has been focused and consistent on the effort to support the moderate opposition.

Do you believe we should be supplying the Ukrainians with lethal defensive weapons, yes or no?

Unfortunately, the Prime Minister chose to take Iraq in another direction.

Dividing Syria and Iraq into two different kinds of conflicts when we are fighting one enemy, of course, is bizarre.

Is it moral for us to train Syrians to go into Syria... when we are not attacking Bashar Assad?

You did not leave Iraq in reasonably good shape, Mr. Blinken, and the events afterward directly negated your assessment at the time.

If we do not leave a sustaining force behind, Afghanistan will collapse and you will be wrong again.

They feel abandoned and they have every reason to feel abandoned, and many of them are deserting to go to al-Nusra because they do not believe that they are getting any assistance.

There is no way going forward that Syria can be stable with Assad in power.

What is beyond debate is that Iraq today is less violent, more democratic, and more prosperous and the United States more deeply engaged there than at any time in recent history.

Absent that kind of political accommodation and willingness to work together, it will be difficult to sustain all of the progress in Afghanistan.