Jim Webb

85 percent of the Japanese people have a positive opinion about the United States.

The alliance that we have with Japan, I think, is the essential tool for us to remain properly involved in this emerging dynamic in Asia.

The past 60 years have produced a dramatically different Asia from the region that had been ravaged by World War II.

Is the ECI an appropriate index to use to adjust military basic pay rates annually?

I want to thank Senator Webb for the step that he's now taken to allow our nominations to proceed.

I think it's important, if I may, to quote from what Senator Lieberman just said when he said this study should inform the decision that Congress makes in voting.

The Marine Corps has always paid a heavy price, in every war, from World War I, particularly, forward.

It takes 200 years to develop a tradition, and 2 days to destroy one.

I think you've made that point clearly today.

Delays of a year or longer have been reported.

I very strongly endorse what our State Department is doing, pursuing the two-state solution with both sides.

Turkey has been an ally of ours since the Korean war, when they fought alongside us during that difficult period.

The diplomatic aspects have to be ones that find common cause with those nations of like-minded principles.

There is probably no problem in that region that can be addressed by a single country, or working just with a single country.

If you look at General Mattis's biographical statement, I count, I think, at least 12 different levels of command in his career, which is really an extraordinary career.

I still have a great number of concerns about the stability of the political environment in that country.

There are no circumstances--none--in which we should put our people unreasonably at risk, where they cannot take actions in order to protect themselves.

It's clearly the most vital thing we have left to do in Iraq, is defining the nature of how all these components fit together.

I will work hand in hand as a partner with the embassy to ensure that we don't just hand off tasks.

I hope we can count on having this Wartime Contracting Commission make another visit soon into Iraq and come out with an idea on the contracting side of how this is going to look like.

The statistics that we had at that time were that African Americans were about 13 percent of the age group, about 12 percent of the people in the military, and about 12 percent of the casualties.

A big part of my frustration during that period was the political process telling the military how to do its actual functions.

There can be nothing more important, in my view--and I think John McCain and I share this concern--than ensuring that, in this type of a process, that the military be allowed to report to the political side.

With these figures in mind, I believe the Blue Ridge Parkway Protection Act is a sound investment for Virginia's future.

How does that affect your ability to train up a ground soldier?