Lindsey Graham

My statement to the committee is that on paper there's a disaster in the making, to our Homeland and to losing all the gains we've fought for inside of Afghanistan, by drawing down too quick and not being able to help the Afghans in a…

On paper it's a high-risk strategy?

Do you see by the end of 2016 any reasonable possibility that the al Qaeda types...will be contained?

Yes, it is. It is determined at this time.

If that doesn't happen I'd be the first one to say to get the hell out of there.

The President chose wisely to make you the next Commandant of the Marine Corps and I think you will get an overwhelming vote in a bipartisan fashion because you've deserved it and you've earned it.

What I fear is if there is a failure of the two sides to reconcile the election process, the army will fracture along sectarian lines.

If they cannot get through this election process to show the Afghan people and the rest of the world that they have done this political transfer of power peacefully, then right now the coalition forces will not continue to stay there after…

If we cannot rely on the Afghans and the Pakistani elements to defend America from a regenerated al Qaeda-type force... the line of defense that America enjoys today is going to vanish if something does not change.

This is the plan. The question is do we change the plan.

Let us fast forward to January 2017. How many do we expect to have given the current plan?

How many counterterrorism forces, special forces do we have in Afghanistan today?

Many of those organizations reside in the Afghan-Pakistan border regions.

The forces that attacked our country on September 11--they had safe haven in Afghanistan.

Let us look at Afghanistan as a line of defense for America.

To defeat the insurgency, they have to believe they are going to get killed or captured.

I would urge you to go visit. It is probably the crown jewel of criminal justice in that part of the world, and it is a very modern facility, well run.

Let us just lay out the plan for the American people.

Do you agree with me that the only way to deter them is to prevent them from attacking us, because killing them is not a deterrent?

The only way we'll be able to detect what they're up to is to be able to access these commercial networks in a reasonable fashion?

If they could attack any place in the world, the top priority would probably be here at home?

The threat we face is very real.

Do you believe if we had had the NSA capabilities in effect in September 2001 that we have today there's a high likelihood that we would have intercepted the attack on September 11?

The NSA program is designed to protect us against an enemy who is hell-bent on attacking our Nation at home and throughout the world, do you agree with that?

Is it fair to say that when we accepted each plane into the fleet--the operational tempo has been really unprecedented since World War II probably, and that when it comes time to evaluate our future needs, we're flying the wings off of…