Jim Webb

We need to see more discipline and more leadership and a clearer articulation of the priorities of where this money is going and why.

I think your sensible and informed views have really helped calm down a lot of the debate here in this country.

As a maritime nation, we should improve the quality and strength of our seapower.

In our current strategic environment, these commitments can affect force structure in the short-term but really not play out to our national advantage in the long-term.

We run the risk, as I mentioned to General Petraeus and General McChrystal, of allowing our success to be defined by something that's never happened before, something that we can't totally control, which is something that concerns me.

It points to a concern that a lot of people who have served and a lot of people who have written about the situation in Afghanistan share. That is that maneuverability is the most effective way to conduct operations against international…

The Senator Kerry-Senator Lugar bill is very important as far as I'm concerned, because it's not about the $1.5 billion a year as much as it is a 5-year commitment to Pakistan.

I have often remarked, as someone who grew up in that environment and also had to watch a son and a son-in-law deployed to combat, it is probably harder being a family member either with a father or a spouse deployed or having a child…

For every slot that is given to one person, it is arguably taken away from someone else.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, Mr. Chairman, I would offer a comment about the preparation that Dr. Westphal has made for this position.

My strongest objections early on were the interference of the political process into the day-to-day decisions that should have been left to the military.

We all feel very strongly that, as much as possible, our military should represent America, but we also, all of us I think, feel very strongly that should occur with demonstrable standards of fairness.

Anything that would diminish that status is something we have to guard against.

We are at our best, we are at our strongest when we draw from all over the country.

I really mean that. You did mention other notable Americans who died of friendly-fire incidents on the battlefield.

We have, on the one hand, I think, become a much more unilateral guarantor among the NATO countries for security issues.

But, also a national army is a component of a viable national government.

I have some real concerns about what has happened to the NATO Alliance, not with respect to Afghanistan, but I guess the only phrase you can really use is international sprawl.

I regretfully say I think that the Army really failed the Tillman family.

They really don't add, quite frankly, to the security of the United States to have them as members of NATO.

Do you have an idea about how these monies are going to be paid to this national army?

I wrote and introduced my first day in office, that 75 percent of the soldiers in the Army leave the military on or before the end of their first enlistment.

I'm here to tell you, we have a stewardship toward these people and if we, the civilian leadership, don't articulate this stewardship, in a lot of cases it's not going to happen.

I would just like to reiterate a few points that I made on this before, that it is properly before the OSD...

Why, 6 years then after September 11, were we asking civilian contractors to teach our military people how to perform military functions?