Hillary Clinton

Are you at this point able to assert with a 100-percent level of confidence to this committee that every soldier being deployed to Iraq as part of this escalation will have all the necessary personal equipment?

Engaging Iran is a policy decision. President Bush and Secretary of State Rice have offered to hold talks with Iran's leaders on Iraq, regional security, and nuclear issues, after they suspend uranium enrichment.

I think you could make a very strong case that the Iraqis are not ready to put violence aside as a tool for the various agendas they're pursuing--sectarian, political, personal, and commercial.

The political problems that the Iraqis are failing to address will, unfortunately, require that we take a different strategic attitude toward Iraq.

I think that the lessons learned from the last years may be very difficult ones for any of us to learn and apply, but we have to be committed to doing so.

a main tenet of counterinsurgency doctrine is that victory is achieved when the populace consents to the government's legitimacy.

I wish you well, because certainly that's turned out to be a difficult situation for many.

I think the potential to have tensions continue to ease ought to give us some opportunities to perhaps have the Paks do even more than they're doing.

Are you aware of the problems that are apparently cited in this report, as set forth in press accounts of it?

I believe that withdrawal will be extraordinarily dangerous for our troops.

I asked General Petraeus--this was really more of a plea; some have characterized it as a prayer--that we not send our new troops into Baghdad without being fully equipped and ready.

I would ask each of you if you will commit to keeping this committee and Congress informed, in classified sessions, if necessary, about the process of contingency planning for any future redeployment.

I hope we can hear that it has been fixed, because some of these stories coming out of the fighting on Haifa Street...

Admiral Fallon, the Washington Post published an article on January 30, 2007 about Iran's ascendance titled 'With Iran Ascendant, U.S. is Seen at Fault: Arab Allies in Region Feeling Pressure.'

I appreciate that, Admiral, and I would hope, perhaps, that the committee would send a very clear message to Secretary Gates and the Pentagon that we want that assessment done as quickly as possible.

I think it is extremely important that we really understand where we're headed, with a new kind of enemy.

The concerns that we all share are the consequences for our troops and for the Iraqi people, that will flow from a decision to redeploy.

I wish you well in a position that many of us believe is an impossible one.

the strategy that is being put forward inspires skepticism for good reason.

This is not -- they've done by the book. In other words, the president's, in her eyes and in many Americans' eyes, failed political strategy in Iraq. It's not going to work.

She has military expertise, however, which she acquired on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

More than a third of Democrats surveyed back Senator Clinton.

She needs to prove she can do this on her own.

There's no way to escape Bill Clinton.

She has a problem, maybe, with some liberal Democrats on the Iraq issue, because she has not repudiated her initial vote to authorize the war in Iraq.