Lindsey Graham

I hope the American people understand, not only are we going to have more casualties, we're going to be paying for their army, their police force, and ours.

Secretary Gates said NATO's been pretty awful, when it comes to the Afghan security forces.

We're going to have to spend a lot of money in Afghanistan in the near and long term.

The American people need to brace themselves for increased casualties in Afghanistan.

The outcome is uncertain. We want to win. We should win. But, you have to do the things to win.

Would it be wise for Congress to put such a condition on war funding? Would it undermine the mission?

I would not use the word 'relentless,' General, in terms of the policy that we're embarking on, regarding the enemy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General Petraeus, I can't tell you how much it means to all of us that you're willing to do this.

I think they're enormous.

That's very encouraging.

We're starting to see small breakthroughs in the overall resolution of this.

I think it would be important. I think that's something that people are looking at now, and I think that would help significantly.

From my point of view, for what it's worth, is that until the Iraqis have a statute that divides the oil up between each group where everybody feels like they're getting the resources of the country fairly shared, it's going to be a tough…

We have to make sure that if that pay stops that we have a plan, do you agree with that, General Austin?

I think we are on the 10-yard line. I think the next 18 months will determine whether we get to the goal line.

Even Senator Lindsey Graham, who was recently in Afghanistan, says he saw firsthand how the old rule was failing soldiers and how dangerous suspects were being released because of the 96-hour time constraint.

Despite the importance of medical and dental readiness, at the end of the day, my sense is that funding for medical and dental readiness does not compete well with other priorities.

The equipment problems in the Coast Guard seem pretty serious to me. We have an aging fleet.

We need to figure out how to address this problem.

I want to make sure they can be used in a logical way.

I think we need to look long and hard at finding a way to call people in from the Reserves to Active Duty for limited periods of time without presidential consultation.

A lot of these people could hold their head up high and walk away, basically say, 'I've done my time.'

The Guard and Reserve, as Senator Webb said, is an indispensable part of this war effort.

I think the law needs to be changed, quite frankly.

There is widespread concern about the sustainability of military health care benefits.