John McCain

Torture is something that civilized countries don't do, period, end of story.

Pakistan concluded an agreement with some Taliban elements in the Swat Valley that allowed for full adoption of sharia law. Do you believe that this arrangement supports our objectives in the region?

I support the strategy. I think it would be far, far better to announce that we will have the additional 10,000 dispatched.

I believe that the strategy that the President and his team have developed for addressing the enormous challenge of Afghanistan is a good one.

I share the President's conviction that the war in Afghanistan is one we can and must win.

I believe the President should have used the opportunity last week to commit to the commander's request.

I believe that we should significantly increase our goal to approximately 250,000 and accelerate progress toward that goal.

The approach outlined by the President last week has the potential to be the first step on the right path in what will be a difficult and costly effort in Afghanistan.

The war in Afghanistan is one that we can win and that we must win, but for years now we have been fighting without a clear strategy and with insufficient resources.

I do not agree with statements by some in the administration that we cannot make progress in Afghanistan without success on the Pakistan side of the border.

If Pakistan's goals are attacking militants and extremists for the sake of their own stability and the benefit of the Pakistani people, then we can and should support their goals.

I welcome President Obama's commitment to robustly fund the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, to prevent waste and fraud in reconstruction programs.

It is long past time for our NATO allies, friends, and other stakeholders in the region to step up and do their part.

We need metrics and we need benchmarks to measure progress to report to the American people and, importantly, to hold people accountable.

In this challenging fiscal and budgetary environment, we must look hard at every requirement, every development plan, and every capability.

On April 6, 2009, Secretary Gates announced how the fiscal year 2010 defense budget request will reshape the priorities of the defense establishment.

In April 2009, the head of the Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) Plan indicated that it took a total of 300 auditors to complete the audit of the Army Corps of Engineers.

We are a Judeo-Christian nation.

In terms of future leaders of the Republican Party, would you like to see Sarah Palin become president?

But have no doubt of my respect, admiration and love for Sarah and her family.

I'd like to see her compete. I think we've got some very good candidates... There's a lot of good, fresh talent out there.

On the subject of the permanent checkpoint--and I cannot make Congressman Colby's argument as convincingly as he did--but his argument was we establish a permanent checkpoint and the drug dealers and the human smugglers know about it and…

I am very appreciative of the input that we get from you.

I really thank you for coming to Phoenix, Arizona, to conduct this hearing. It is a terrible issue that confronts my State, as well as America.

As a citizen of this country, we have to take responsibility for why all those drugs are coming across the border.