Political Quotes

“I was stationed at the Pentagon when 9/11 happened. A few months later, I was on the ground in Afghanistan as head of the Navy's anti-terrorism unit for a short mission. I watched as the Taliban and al Qaeda flowed across that border over to Pakistan. And then came that tragic misadventure in Iraq. We took that edifice of security of our Special Forces and others and placed them in that country. And what we might have done to truly have better won this global war of terror with the other elements of power, such as fix the illiteracy rate of women in Afghanistan, which is 98 percent, never occurred. I support the President's policies not because of Afghanistan--it has spiraled too far downward to try to resurrect what we once might have done--but because of Pakistan, the most dangerous place in the world. It should have sent chills down everybody's back when General Hayden, 3 years ago, said al Qaeda now has a safe haven in Pakistan where we cannot go, several hundred of those criminals there to plan safely against us. I support the President's policy because, as General Gates said in a closed hearing in December, we need to seal that border. So as Pakistan, once united now again with us, moves to North Waziristan through the Taliban on its side of the border to eradicate the danger to us, the safe haven of al Qaeda, that they do not flow back over into Afghanistan whence Pakistan, who created the Taliban, might once again spread its bets.”