To me, it is, after all is said and done, the first responsibility of our National Government, which is to protect our security.

Our fathers must have come out of the same cloth, which is to value the freedom that America provides is our unique and distinguishing contribution to governance, but to understand that without security, there is no freedom.

I find it outrageous that 10 years after September 11, 2001, we still have difficulty identifying this for what it is.

I will constantly monitor and assess the situation on the ground, and should I determine the situation has changed, I will so advise my chain of command through the proper channels.

With its nuclear activities and its surrogate activities in southern Iraq, there is a high potential that Iran will make a serious miscalculation of U.S. resolve.

I appreciate that. That's a very balanced answer and I think you have your anxieties well in control.

I commend this Committee and the leadership of Senators Lieberman and Collins for their ongoing work in identifying this dangerous ideology and developing ways to protect against it.

The ideologues have used religion to fuel their belief system and somehow we are unwilling to confront it.

It should not be an act of moral courage for a soldier to identify a fellow soldier who is displaying extremist behavior; it should be an obligation.

Our report--titled 'A Ticking Time Bomb: Counterterrorism Lessons from the U.S. Government's Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack'--concluded, painfully, that the attack at Fort Hood was preventable.

I agree with the report's conclusion that Hasan's open displays of violent extremism was a violation of military rules calling for good order and discipline.

the enemy--I am paraphrasing, of course, here--is not just al-Qaeda, they said; and it is certainly not the religion of Islam. It is a politicized ideology, a corruption of the religion, which is violent Islamist extremism.

I wholeheartedly endorse the report's recommendations for reform in DOD to better protect against this threat.

It does not take too many people to do a terrible amount of damage, as we saw at Fort Hood.

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Yes, I was very surprised by General Amos' comments. I know he's against the repeal. I, respectfully, just think he's absolutely wrong.

That means, Anderson, that we have got not 60, but now 61 members of the U.S. Senate publicly committed to the repeal of don't ask, don't tell.