Gayle Tzemach Lemmon Quotes

We must have a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces - or at the very least a plan for it - something the administration has incredulously failed to do for over two years.

I believe there should be no arbitrary date set for withdrawal and yet no permanent, unending deployment. No cut and run, yet measured progress in helping a people who want to be free without an illusion of overnight success.

We have to go in and win this war quickly, and then be prepared to help stabilize Iraq over an indefinite period, five to ten years, at a minimum, I believe, using a large fraction of American forces. This is a major undertaking that likely would require a total of 150,000 troops and could stay above 100,000 for several years

Our army is really an imperial army…. We used to wonder why British imperialists went to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2 wars [Afghanistan and Iraq] victory seemed to be measured not in terms of when the United States would prevail, but by when it would be able to leave.

America’s war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end.

Keeping a relatively small, predominantly U.S. Special Forces presence in Afghanistan to continue to train the Afghan army past December 2016 is a wise policy that would benefit both Afghans and Americans.

President Obama is sending a couple hundred troops to Iraq. We spent six years trying to figure a way to get out of Iraq. And now we're back. But this time there is an exit strategy. Barack Obama has an exit strategy. In 2016, he's gone.

No one is talking about occupying Iraq for five to ten years.

Congress and the American people have good reason to fear that we are heading toward another permanent garrison of Americans in a Balkan country where our mission is confused, and our exit strategy a complete mystery.

John McCain's complaint is we're either not at war somewhere, or if we're at war, we leave too soon. So we're not there soon enough, and he wants us to stay forever wherever we send troops.

We can't have a failure in Iraq, but we also can't be there for the next 10 years because if we are, it's going to become, I think, a failure in and of itself.

Nor should the U.S. military be forced to remain in Iraq essentially as an army for one side of a civil war.

We can't stay in Afghanistan forever.

While this debate today is a belated effort to inform the American people, it is nevertheless an empty gesture. It is time to admit our mistake in Iraq and begin to bring our troops home with honor.

I applaud President Obama's decision to begin a partial withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan. However, I believe that we must go further and have a full withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops.

Conventional wisdom holds that setting a timetable for getting American troops out of Iraq would be a mistake.

We're not going to spread democracy at the business end of a M16 held by a 23 year old Marine.

Someone should tell the president that U.S. forces would need to be in Iraq for two to five years, and they will not have an easy time there.

The possibility of the United States winning the war and losing the peace is real and serious

You’re going to have to occupy Iraq for years and years. The idea that democracy will suddenly blossom is something that I can’t share...Are Americans ready for this?

Necessary to keep Iraqi army intact for a specified period of time. Serves as a ready resource pool for labor-intensive civil works projects

Is it worth the sacrifice so that little girls can go to school? Or are we simply doing the bidding of the neo-imperialist Americans? Why can’t we bring the soldiers home and just build the schools?

Rebuilding Iraq will require sustained commitment from many nations, including our own: we will remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day more.

When Americans, who are serving in your country at great cost–in terms of lives and treasure–hear themselves compared with occupiers, told that they are only here to advance their own interest, and likened to the brutal enemies of the Afghan people… they are filled with confusion and grow weary of our effort here. At the point your leaders believe that we are doing more harm than good, when we reach a point that we feel our soldiers and civilians are being asked to sacrifice without a just cause, and our generous aid programs dismissed as totally ineffective and the source of all corruption… especially at a time our economy is suffering and our needs are not being met, the American people will ask for our forces to come home.