Jon Kyl: “What is the U.S. security interest in achieving victory in Iraq? We know that the world in that region would be thrown…”

“What is the U.S. security interest in achieving victory in Iraq? We know that the world in that region would be thrown into absolute chaos, with probably hundreds of thousands of casualties, if not more, if we leave Iraq a failed state. Even more directly to America's interests and to answer the question of how long will Americans support this effort is the danger that our momentum in the war on terror will be set back and will be dealt a tremendous blow if we leave Iraq a failed state and the terrorists are able to then move out from there and again become dominant in places such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Wahabis, and Saudi Arabia and so on. That would be a terrible blow to the progress we have made against these terrorists. Osama bin Laden has a saying about the weak horse and the strong horse. It has always been his view that we are a weak horse because we get out when the going gets tough--in Lebanon, in Vietnam, and in Mogadishu. He believes that just as he thinks he threw the Soviets out of Afghanistan, he can throw the United States out of all of this part of the world because we are the weak horse.”