Ted Yoho

It is mind boggling that somebody thinks that, you know, they are going to get a hangover and they are going to crush up some rhino horns.

It is very important that the people see a value in an elephant tusk that is beyond the immediate harvest because that represents a dead elephant.

I never cease to be amazed at the stupidity, ignorance and brutality and greed of my fellow man on something like this.

It wound up costing him over $400,000 by the time he was done, and he just threw up his hands. This is happening all over America. So I thank you again.

It is a national security threat that we should address?

It seems like they are on the run--coming together for that commonality, and that is against the United States, European powers, and to me that is the danger.

But earlier on today you just said, you know, it was going to be about a year, and they would have four to five bombs is what I understood.

I think the diplomacy is the big thing we need to do, and I also think we need to prepare.

The sanctions, you know, I know they were well intended, but they don't seem to have worked, so what else can we do?

So instead of going through the U.N. and letting that money go through there why don't we use American companies and invest in infrastructure and things that we can trade and start from the ground floor up instead of filtering it through…

I think we need to focus on aid--or trade, not aid. I think China is ahead of us in here.

If we become trading partners with a country like Sudan, instead of forcing Western ideals on a country that does not want those...

What are we hoping for? That they will have a stable government, one that is not wrought with fraud, waste, and abuse?

They are in the lead. They are taking the majority of casualties, and I venture to say close to 90 percent of the operations the military is conducting are Afghan-led, Afghan-directed, Afghan-planned.

Our goal... is a secure, stable, and democratic Afghanistan that governs this population justly and secures its geographic space.

I want to build on some of the statements made by my colleague from Hawaii and Mr. Duncan in the regards of the money being spent.

I look forward to this hearing to find out how we can better utilize the aid we give, not just in money and food but the military.

I think their willingness to come to the table or wanting to is maybe they are feeling a little bit of pain over there.

It just amazes me to hear what is going on right now in the present situation with these negotiations...

When are they going to pick up the ball or the baton and run with it on their own without our assistance, or is that a possibility?

I've never been there and you have, obviously. But I'm just not seeing that and go ahead and--let me talk to Mr. Chollet.

But yet in a government that doesn't respect the things that we hold dear in a Western society or Western values--human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion--how can you expect the voice to be heard by their government if that…

What I see is just a repeat of the same thing. You know, we've got a fractured government more than we've ever seen in the last 30 years since Anwar Sadat.

I believe it is because we try to put western ideologies in their government that they don't want to accept.

I don't understand how we can throw billions and billions of dollars over and over again to a corrupt government.