Cliff Stearns: “I hope you remember that. From the moment we got there, many of the folks wanted us to leave. Most remarkable is that…”

“I hope you remember that. From the moment we got there, many of the folks wanted us to leave. Most remarkable is that these same folks wanted us to leave just before we stabilized Iraq. They were not in favor of the surge. Yet the surge worked. Now they want us to leave Afghanistan in 30 days without giving this new strategy a chance to succeed. The President of the United States has indicated he wants to stay there for 18 months. Why won't his opponents just allow the President to have the opportunity to fulfill his own commitment which he has made publicly? Are they so up in arms that they would undermine the President, especially in light of the fact they were wrong in Iraq? We have an opportunity to let General McChrystal apply the successes in Iraq to Afghanistan, which, I might add, are successes my friends on the other side of the aisle opposed, and to possibly win there and to possibly stabilize the country. We need to let the strategy work and achieve the successes like we had in Iraq.”