Political Quotes

“That is a very good point, and that is exactly sort of where I was going to take this. That requires the footprint of thousands. We don't need 5,000, but I think 10,000 when you add it up is probably the bare minimum to do this. Because the commanders who are policing the Kurdish-Arab dispute boundary line in the northern part of Iraq have come up with a very novel approach, and I want to give the administration credit and the military credit. What they have done is they have taken Peshmergas, which are basically Kurdish militia, integrated them with Iraqi national security forces and American forces to form companies that eventually go to brigades, where they will get to know each other and work together as a team. I think any neutral observer would tell you our presence in Kirkuk has prevented a shooting conflict in the past. That is what President Barzai is worried about in the Kurdish areas. That is 5,000, he said. He has said we will need 5,000 troops here for a while to make sure this new concept of jointness develops over time. So when you add the whole package, you are somewhere around 10,000 plus. To the administration, not only is bipartisanship desired in national security, I think it is required. We can look back and pat each other on the back or blame each other about Iraq. That is not what I am trying to do. We are where we are, and we are in a pretty decent place to the point that the Iranians are going nuts.…”