Jack Reed

I just fear that you're going to be placed in an impossible situation.

Well, then he should be fired, because, frankly, if he's not capable of being the individual responsible for those duties and they've passed it on to someone else, then why is he there? That's my view.

I think if the President was really serious he should replace Mr. Hadley, appoint you as a civilian, not as an Army officer.

It is another political, public relations ploy, rather than a significant change in strategy.

Your appointment represents a devastating critique of the national security apparatus of this White House.

The insurgency it is a Sunni insurgency.

The Shia militia are deliberately avoiding contact with us.

The cancer is militias, both Sunni and Shia.

The effect of our operations or the perception of our operations at least initially would be that we are conducting generally attacks against Sunni forces.

He has needed help for 2 or 3 years and it has not arrived.

This strategy of a surge I think is probably compromised by the same factors.

I have not seen a lot of commitment outside of DOD to succeeding in Iraq.

A military strategy alone without a functional Iraqi government and without the support of non-DOD agencies cannot effectively prevail in Iraq.

It's not what we're doing, it's what the American people are doing. They have listened for 3 years, and they have formed very strong conclusions.

Admiral, your patriotism serving the Nation is remarkable. You are well qualified to assume a very daunting task.

I don't think we have everything we need.

The question is, where are these translators coming from?

It's an obvious flaw, or an obvious shortcoming in this plan.

We never get what we need on the nonkinetic side of the equation.

The new strategy sounds a lot like the old strategy to me.

I don't think that's a very good assumption, since we have never gotten that, in the last 3 years.

I wish you success because the lives of a lot of young Americans are in your hands.

We seem to be pushing quite close to that 6-month window.

In response to Senator McCain's question about what happens if we announce some type of withdrawal.

That is likely to accelerate or decelerate, regardless of what we do?