Jon Kyl: “the other topic I wish to address is the subject of the week, the Defense authorization bill, and especially as it…”

“the other topic I wish to address is the subject of the week, the Defense authorization bill, and especially as it relates to the issue of the current ongoing military activity in Iraq. I wish to briefly respond to a couple of comments that have been said recently, particularly comments by General Petraeus and the remarks the President made to us last week. It seems to me the President said something very important to all of America when he said the success of the surge in Iraq today offers us an opportunity to be united as we have not had for some time. There are people who want us to leave as soon as we can from Iraq. There are people who want us to stay and complete the mission. And what the President said was, regardless of which of these general positions you have supported, there is an opportunity now for us to get together because the reality is that as long as this mission does continue to succeed, we can withdraw more and more troops which, obviously, we would all wish to do. So I hope as time goes on and this surge continues to succeed, we will have the opportunity to continue to withdraw American troops.”