"I applaud your commitment to doing this, and stand ready to have the committee help you in any way we can."
"This is obviously a very, very difficult part of the world."
"We clearly have national security interests in how Afghanistan is governed, and Pakistan as well."
"Making sure that we don't return to those days is clearly in our national security interests."
"how do we get to the point where we can reduce our commitment in Afghanistan so that it is not an open-ended commitment and a blank check?"
"We have had timelines. We have had troop caps. We have also consistently exceeded those troop caps and consistently gone beyond those timelines."
"We ask that Congress approve the Committee Report language in the FY2018 NDAA which further defines Section 2805."
"We cannot wait until we solve our budget problems to adequately fund our military."
"We cannot keep piling missions on our service members without ensuring they have all they need to succeed."
"We have all these grand ideas of what we want. We do not have the money to get there."
"They are in a very comprehensive effort to undermine the very values that our country has fought for in the post-World War II environment."
"I agree with the Secretary of State. We should be finding ways to solve that problem, not ways to throw gasoline on the fire."