Political Quotes

“This is the time to have some good bipartisanship. Senator Levin, is it not true--I have to ask you a question--that you have been saying as long as I can remember that the surge that really needs to occur is on the Afghan side? You have focused like a laser in the last couple of years on training capacity. Not only are we producing 90,000 additional Afghan Army and police forces, 97 percent of them now can pass Western shooting standards. Two years ago, that number was less than a third. Of the NCOs--noncommissioned officers--graduating from the schools in Afghanistan, there is about an 80-percent literacy rate. Two years ago, it was less than 50 percent. So what I wish to acknowledge is that Senator Levin has been focusing on what I think is the ticket home with honor and security: building up an Afghan army and police force that can fight the fight without 100,000 Americans. We are well on the way. If we had not changed our training program--which the Senator has been focused on for a very long time--we would not have had this success. And General Caldwell is one of the unsung heroes of this war. But I couldn't agree more with my colleague from Michigan. The reason we can bring American troops home is because there are more Afghans to do the fighting. And the Senator mentioned that during the surge in Helmand, it was a 10-to-1 ratio. For every Afghan, there were 10 American forces. It is almost 50-50 today, with a climb to where it will be Afghans in the lead.…”