We will provide our men and women in uniform with everything that they need to ensure that they succeed in their mission.

I worry, as my colleagues have, that there may be a proliferation of intelligence-gathering and fusion operations.

Senator Levin correctly says that we have a longstanding principle here, we fly before we buy.

Those are not unimportant questions. They are quite important, but they cannot be allowed, even in this election year, to take us off the target, and the target is to successfully complete the mission in Iraq.

Would you have the same judgment about the 20 additional interceptors we are being asked to fund this year?

I was a co-sponsor of the Missile Defense Act of 1999 and last year I supported funding for the initial 20 interceptors.

I have remained a strong supporter of missile defense throughout my tenure in the U.S. Senate.

We are not on a timetable. We are on a timetable to do the mission right.

I am also troubled by the lack of any plans for realistic operational testing in the near-term.

to support and maintain public and congressional support for the troops and the mission, it seems to me that we have to guarantee that there is the widest and most unfettered investigation of how the prison abuse scandals happened…

General Eberhart, what issues have you identified that relate to how these centers might complement, rather than compete with, one other...

General Eberhart, does your intelligence center produce intelligence products that analyze the threat to our homeland?

I think it is critically important that at some level, there be that independent review by people outside of the Pentagon.

We're heading down a road to an unnecessary fight in a circumstance where that battle may do damage to our cause.

I do think, Mr. Chairman, under the leadership of yourself and Senator Levin, that this committee has a uniquely important role to continue to focus Congress.

Is it fair to say that you are stating here that the Pentagon and the administration went through a process of balancing all the other systems that come out of your office, and that we are investing a justified $10 billion for the system?

I am concerned by the MDA's pronounced lack of recent testing since we have now gone 15 full months without an IFT.

Why is the MDA not focusing its resources on operational testing before you buy more interceptors?

This year's budget request for missile defense is substantial.

I am concerned that in the near future a single high-technology missile launched by a State or organization may have the capability to defeat our defenses.

I must say it is reassuring as I hear your testimony to see how much we have done.

I would appeal to all of you to do what I am sure you will do anyway.

That is a relatively small percentage of our overall active duty personnel, in an area where you are really being asked to do a lot.

the question really for us as the authorizers, knowing that everybody would always like more, is to urge you to be very direct with us in telling us if you are not getting the kind of personnel and support you need.

In a country that I guess is about as large as California, with a lot of vulnerable targets obviously, and an enemy that wants to frustrate the progress, stop it, turn it around, and create chaos, how do we stop them?