Withdrawal Decision Quotes

The White House was so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests.

President Obama decided to prematurely withdraw from Iraq for no other reason than politics. The artificial deadline for withdrawal was not determined for strategic goals but rather for a political one - his reelection timetable.

Something that is completely unwinnable. I mean, it becomes unwinnable if we decide to leave [Afghanistan].

Don't kid yourself. President Obama's decision to withdraw 33,000 troops from Afghanistan before he stands for reelection is not driven by the United States' 'position of strength' in the war zone as much as it is by grim economic and political realities at home.

The decision to withdraw our missile defense sites from Poland put us in greater jeopardy, in my view.

The decision to leave [Iraq] should be based solely on the judgment of the combatant commanders on the ground who say, "My Iraqi counterparts can now handle this particular area of the country on their own with minimum American support or with no American support." When they can do that, we should leave.

If you say, "Are you going to change your strategic objective?", it means you're leaving before the mission is complete, and we're not going to leave before the mission in Iraq is complete.

It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy that country after June of 2003. We have to pull back, and we have to recognize it.

It seems to me to be a way to give the Clinton Administration an opportunity to sidestep the issue of whether to announce they're going to withdraw from the ABM treaty, or whether they're going to go ahead and proceed with construction and be hopeful the Russians are not going to accuse them of violating the treaty.