In the President's recent speech at Bagram airbase, President Obama tried to lay out what he believes is the path forward.

Foreign assistance is a means not an end in and of itself.

Clearly, in order to sustain these goals we must, as President Obama notes, work to stabilize Afghanistan.

We should cut Pakistan off of every cent because it is being used for evil purposes and it has even been used to kill Americans.

One area that I think has been a dismal failure is our ability to influence Afghanistan relative to the poppy.

It seems to me that it was more of a victory lap than a statement of strategy or objectives.

It is not in India's interest to have another nuclear weapon state in the region.

one of my main concerns regarding our current policy in Afghanistan is the general lack of long-term strategy.

I thank the chair for yielding time to me. She is doing an exemplary job as chairman of the very important Foreign Affairs Committee, and we thank her for that. I rise in strong support of this resolution. As we approach the 64th…

a lot of our colleagues reject this entitlement mentality that some other countries around the world have

I remain convinced that Israel will one day be the midwife of a new Palestinian state.

Egypt is critical to our national security interests.

Now 1 year later, the picture looks very different.

The answer is not to disengage because we have these concerns. The answer is to continue to engage and invest.

the Egyptian Government seems to be under the impression that they can do all these things and continue to get significant amounts of American aid

You have had much more progress toward democratic rule in Egypt in the past 1.5 years than you had in 60 years.

I think this committee wants to keep very up on what is happening there and I think they have real concerns again in a bipartisan manner.

There is bipartisan agreement that the Congress is outraged relative to the treatment of the NGOs by the Egyptian Government.

I would respectfully suggest it is premature to pass judgment on events that are unfolding in Egypt.

Iraq, which had looked surprisingly stable, is embroiled in a political crisis which, if not checked, has the potential to sink the entire country back into widespread sectarian conflict.

the Iranian Government is up to in that most reprehensible government that now governs Iran.

The regime in Tehran has all but quashed all popular opposition and continues to advance in its quest for a nuclear weapons capability.

A year ago, I was cautiously optimistic that the so-called Arab Spring might usher democracy and human rights into a region where both have been exceptions rather than the rule.

I am deeply concerned that none of these will actually lead to a resolution of the current crisis.

I do not see one iota of evidence to suggest that the Assad regime is sincere in any of its international commitments.