Campaign Statements — Afghanistan
Tuesday January 24, 2012
“Ending the Iraq war has allowed us to strike decisive blows against our enemies. From Pakistan to Yemen, the Al Qaida operatives who remain are scrambling, knowing that they can’t escape the reach of the United States of America.
From this position of strength, we’ve begun to wind down the war in Afghanistan. Ten thousand of our troops have come home. Twenty-three thousand more will leave by the end of this summer. This transition to Afghan lead will continue, and we will build an enduring partnership with Afghanistan so that it is never again a source of attacks against America.”
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Barack Obama | Iraq | War on Terror |
Monday January 23, 2012
“This president, however, has done — made — made it very difficult for our troops to be able to be successful in that mission by, number one, announcing a withdrawal date for our troops, number two drawing down our surge troops faster than the time the commanders on the ground was necessary. You don’t draw them down during the middle of the fighting season. And finally, by not overseeing elections in Afghanistan to assure that the — the selection of their president was seen by the people as being legitimate. And he has failed in — in executing a policy in Afghanistan that would optimize our prospects of success.”
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |
Monday January 23, 2012
“[You end a war in Afghanistan without talking to the Taliban] by beating them. By standing behind our troops and making sure that — that we have transitioned to the Afghan military, a capacity for them to be successful in holding off the Taliban. Our — our mission there, is to be able to turn Afghanistan and it’s sovereignty over to a military of Afghan descent — Afghan people that can defend their sovereignty. And that is something which we can accomplish in the next couple of years.”
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |
Monday January 16, 2012
“Look, you have every right in this country to protest and to express your views on a wide range of issues but you don’t have a right to join a group that is killed Americans, and has declared war against America. That’s treason. In this country we have a right to take those people and put them in jail.
And I recognize, I recognize that in a setting where they are enemy combatants and on our own soil, that could possibly be abused…But let me tell you, people who join al Qaeda are not entitled to rights of due process under our normal legal code. They are entitled instead to be treated as enemy combatants.”
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |
Monday January 16, 2012
“The Taliban used to be our allies when we were fighting the Russians. So Taliban are people who want—their main goal is to keep foreigners off their land. It’s the al Qaeda, you can’t mix the two. The al Qaeda want to come here to kill us. The Taliban just says we don’t want foreigners. We need to understand that, or we can’t resolve this problem in the Middle East. We are going to spend a lot of lives and a lot of money for a long time to come.”
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Ron Paul | War on Terror |
Monday January 16, 2012
“Well, obviously when you have a country that is being ruled by, what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists, when you start seeing that type of activity against their own citizens, then yes. Not only is it time for us to have a conversation about whether or not they belong to be in NATO, but it’s time for the United States, when we look at their foreign aid, to go to zero with it.
And you go to zero with foreign aid for all of those countries. And it doesn’t make any difference who they are. You go to zero with that foreign aid and then you have the conversation about, do they have America’s best interest in mind? And when you have countries like Turkey that are moving far away from the country that I lived in back in the 1970′s as a pilot in the United States Air Force that was our ally, that worked with us, but today we don’t see that.
Our president, has a foreign policy that makes our allies very nervous and emboldens our enemies. And we have to have a president of the United States that clearly sends the message, whether it’s to Israel, our friend and there should be no space between the United States and Israel, period.”
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Iran | Iraq | Israel/Palestine | Rick Perry | War on Terror |
Monday January 16, 2012
“We don’t negotiate from a position of weakness as we’re pulling our troops out. The right course for us is to strengthen the Afghan military force so they can reject the Taliban.
Think what it says to the people in Afghanistan and the military in Afghanistan, when we’re asking them to stand up and fight to protect the sovereignty of their people, if they see us, their ally, turning and negotiating with the very people they’re going to have to protect their nation from. It’s the wrong course. The vice president’s wrong. We should not negotiate with the Taliban. We should defeat the Taliban.”
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |
Monday January 16, 2012
“Of course you take out our enemies, wherever they are. These people declared war on us. They’ve killed Americans. We go anywhere they are, and we kill them. The right thing for Osama bin Laden was the bullet in the—in the head that he received. That’s the right thing for people who kill American citizens. Now, the Taliban is killing Americans. This president has done an extraordinary thing. He announced the date of our withdrawal. He announced the date of the withdrawal of our surge forces based upon a political calendar, not the calendar that the commanders on the ground said it was based for our mission. That was wrong.”
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Iraq | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |
Monday January 16, 2012
“That’s what we have been doing in the Middle East, digging bigger and bigger holes for ourselves and it’s so hard for us to get out of that mess. And we have a long ways to go. We are still in Iraq and that’s getting worse and we are not leaving Afghanistan and the American people are sick and tired of it. 80 percent of the American people want us out of there. I am just suggesting that we work within the rule of law. Like only going to war when you declare the law, then we wouldn’t be…”
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Iraq | Ron Paul | War on Terror |
Sunday January 15, 2012
[In reference to a video showing US Marines urinating on the dead bodies of alleged members of the Taliban.]
PERRY: Well, obviously, 18, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often, and that’s what’s occurred here. But, you know, when you’re—when you’re in war—and history, kind of, backs up there’s a picture of General Patton doing basically the same thing in the Rhine river. And although there’s not a picture, Churchill did the same thing on the Siegfried line.
So I’ll tell you what’s been really disturbing to me is just, kind of, the over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military, it appears, whether it’s the secretary of state or whether it’s the secretary of defense. I mean, these kids made a mistake. There’s not any doubt about it. They shouldn’t have done it. It’s bad. But the—the—to call it a criminal act, I think, is over the top.
CROWLEY: Well, here’s the problem, I think. All the things that you mentioned as part of history was before YouTube; it was before the Taliban; it was before this feeling that the U.S. somehow does not respect, you know, religions.This is—this is something that’s not just a picture. It’s not just a message to Americans. It’s a message that could hurt us in the larger world. So I’m not sure the exact age of them, but no matter what age they are, is this the kind of behavior that you think you can tolerate in the day and age when that picture is everywhere?
PERRY: Well, here’s the issue. I will suggest to you that these are 18, 19, 20-year-old kids. They make mistakes. There is video out there of all types of things, I will suggest to you. But the idea that this administration would go after these young people for a criminal act is—again, I think it is over the top and—and did they make a mistake? Absolutely. Should they be reprimanded and appropriately punished? Yes. But going after them as a criminal act, I think—really bad message.
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CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Rick Perry | War on Terror |
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Looking at Iran by James Zogby
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 16, 2013
