"I think it would be better to sort of explain, you know, what, it is not a boots-on-the-ground issue."
"It is because we don't think it will work, and I think that is the thing to make clear."
"If we find enough Sunnis in Iraq and Syria who are willing to fight against ISIS, that is when we will start to be successful."
"what I really want to focus on is what should be done, regardless of who it is, who's in charge of it."
"I fear that the totality of the President's interest on Afghanistan is simply to do what is necessary to finish the job and withdraw."
"I hope the President will heed the advice of his military commanders."
"Those gains are fragile and reversible because the problems with the Afghan Government remain."
"The stability of the Afghan Government still is plagued with corruption and plagued with a number of difficulties."
"That said, we have got to hand off responsibility at some point and I think it is important we have done this in a stairstep manner."
"We would like to see a smoother transition in Afghanistan."
"We need to find some way to contain that and hopefully get us to the point where we can have a peaceful and reasonably stable regime in Afghanistan and in Pakistan."
"To my mind, is not a logical thing for American counterterrorism purposes."