John McCain

I thank the witnesses for being here and their continued willingness to serve the country.

I hope the next time you're before this committee, that you will be more forthcoming in your answers.

You believe Iraq is headed in a positive or negative direction?

Whew. Which is why--and it's been well documented--these--the Iraqis decided that to try to obtain immunity of over 3,500 troops wasn't worth the effort.

I think the stability has held, sir. I think it's fragile, and it's trending towards being more problematic.

Do you think that Iraq is more stable today than it was a year ago?

Security is mainly a state of mind, not a physical condition, and mutual assured destruction no longer occupies a central psychological or political space in the U.S.-Russian relationship.

In our illustrative plan, the United States over the next 10 years reduces its arsenal to a maximum of 900 nuclear weapons.

The Global Zero report that Senator Hagel was one of four other people that signed it and produced it, said some very troubling things.

This nominee has been somewhat erratic in his positions over time, and I am concerned about that.

I am not surprised that the anti-nuclear left would propose the things that are in the Global Zero report.

Senator Hagel is an honorable man. He has served his country. No one on this committee at any time should impugn his character or his integrity.

In our collective judgment, this committee should not vote and the full Senate should not vote on his confirmation, unless and until he discloses his personal financial compensation over the last 5 years.

I think encouraging those who would do harm to this country is not, ultimately, in the interest of this Nation.

If Chuck Hagel is confirmed, it will make military conflict in the next 4 years substantially more likely.

I think all of us here hope that we can stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon short of military actions.

I was deeply troubled by his statements with regard to containment.

We recently voted in a vote of 90 to 1 in the U.S. Senate explicitly rejecting a policy of containment toward a nuclear-armed Iran.

His gratuitous attacks, for example, saying that President Bush was the worst President since Herbert Hoover, of course, were just gratuitous attacks on the President of the United States.

Senator Hagel's judgment was wrong, continues to be wrong, and he refuses to admit that he was wrong on this issue.

I cannot vote to report out Senator Hagel's nomination favorably.

His performance before this committee was the worst that I have seen of any nominee for office.

Senator Hagel's performance before the Senate Armed Services Committee was the most unimpressive and unfocused that he had ever observed.

I do not believe that we should move forward with his nomination until questions are answered.

He also voted against the Sense of the Senate in designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.