Saxby Chambliss

General Amos, in your prepared statement you discuss the Marine Corps' significant backlog in resetting your equipment based on nearly 10 years of war and redeploying equipment from Iraq to Afghanistan which resulted in deferring…

DOD is spending billions of dollars to buy hundreds more 4th generation fighters, F-18s.

Whether it's voluntary in your case, Secretary Gates, or your time is up, whatever, Admiral Mullen, to both of you, you provided a very valuable service to our country...

The number one national security interest of the United States is the long-term debt that we face.

It's unfortunate that the press tended to misconstrue what you had to say with respect to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Three important tools in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act expire soon.

Recent events in the Middle East and North Africa remind us how rapidly the world can change.

DOD has reduced the number of F-35 aircraft in the near-term budget plan by 246 over the last 2 years.

I am concerned that DOD has redirected money originally planned for F-35 purchases to buy significantly less-capable fourth generation F-18s.

I don't believe that shows much appreciation for the strategic need to retain our air dominance and follow through on our own Government's strategy to keep us ahead of China and Russia.

If confirmed, will you commit to examining this expenditure of taxpayers' resources and report back to us regarding the extent to which you believe this is a wise way to spend DOD and taxpayers' dollars?

Before new capabilities are deployed they must undergo testing that enables an assessment under realistic operational conditions against threat-representative targets to demonstrate that they will be effective and reliable.

I support the President's decision and believe that we can accomplish our objectives.

What really concerns me about where we are with that program is exactly what Senator McCain alluded to.

I give a lot of the credit for that mission to you, and it is well deserved.

I would hope that from a conditions-based standpoint, Leon, that you would give strong consideration to the safety and security of our soldiers.

While impressive gains in security have been made throughout the country of Iraq, Iraq still remains a very dangerous place to live, travel, and work in 2011.

I notice that you agree that the Gaddafi regime must go.

I think that's a very important region of the world, and will be, for the foreseeable future, and I am advocate of a forward presence there.

My question is, with this sustained instability throughout the Muslim world, is the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from Iraq at the end of this year still the right thing to do?

As U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq, the Department of State will have to act quickly to significantly increase their security footprint in Iraq.

We're going to have a lot of lessons learned--or at least the opportunity to have a lot of lessons learned at the conclusion of this process.

A big part of your new job will be to make sure that our intelligence community collectors and analysts live up to this task.

As part of our oversight duty we need to make sure that we are asking the hard and tough questions of the community.

I appreciate, as a member of this Committee, particularly on the minority side, the way that you have conducted yourself as Chairman.