Political Quotes

“I came away with a couple of observations. First in Pakistan, our allies in the war on terror, the Pakistanis, have great concern about an early withdrawal from Iraq, because they saw first hand, after the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, when America left that region, left Afghanistan to uncertainty and chaos, what happened was the rise of the Taliban, an extremist group, that then gave basis to al Qaeda to be able to plan and plot the 9/11 attacks on America. So the Pakistanis are extremely concerned about an early withdrawal. Our allies around the world are concerned. The word of America is at risk. Our allies are watching what we do here in the United States Congress and what America does. Second, traveling to Iraq, I came away with some positive reports, not only from our commanders, but listening to the Iraqi general, who is in charge of the national police. He said that the Shia, the Sunni and the Kurds have come together as Iraqis, standing up a national police force that's fighting to throw out the negative elements that are in Iraq today.”