Political Quotes

“That's a perfect lead-in, because I want to talk a little bit about these two gentlemen who are leading this effort on the ground because I don't know if a lot of Americans really know about their background. General Petraeus was a former commander of the 101st Airborne Division, and as many history buffs will remember, they were very famous for the first deployments behind German lines on D-Day. So that group, that division has a very illustrious history. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was also a former commander of the 101st Airborne. Not many people know this, but General Petraeus has a Ph.D. from Princeton University in international relations, and he is also an assistant professor of international relations at West Point. He is a coauthor of the counter-insurgency manual that our military uses, and that's what they have actually implemented on the ground, and that's why we are seeing this great success. Ambassador Crocker, there is a quote from his swearing in when he was sworn in as ambassador to Iraq, and I am going to quote Ambassador Crocker. He says, ``We have a historic challenge ahead of us. Terrorists, insurgents, militias continue to threaten security in Baghdad and around the country. Security is, without question, the central issue.'' In a very real sense it has been for at least the last four decades. I was here in the 1970s. There was no security. Iraqis everywhere lived in terror of the midnight knock on the door.…”