Campaign Statements — Iraq

Wednesday May 23, 2012

“After a decade of war…the nation we need to build is our own.”

“My opponent has different ideas. He said it was “tragic” to end the war in Iraq, and won’t set a timeline for ending the war in Afghanistan. I have set a timeline. Our coalition partners and the Afghans agree with me. I intend to keep it. After a decade of war that’s cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, the nation we need to build is our own. We’re going to use half of what we’re no longer spending on the war to pay down our deficit, use the other half to invest in education and research and wireless networks and smart grids and broadband lines and new runways. And that’s the choice in this election.”

CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Barack Obama | Iraq |

Saturday April 28, 2012

“We’ve done what we’ve said we’d do.”

“Hillary and I, we’ve spent the last 3½ years cleaning up after other folks’ messes. And by the way, we’re starting to get them pretty cleaned up. The war in Iraq is over. We’re transitioning in Afghanistan. We’ve got the strongest allies we’ve ever seen. And Al Qaida is on the ropes. So we’ve done what we said we’d do.

But when you’ve got the leading contender, the presumptive nominee, on the other side suddenly saying our number-one enemy isn’t Al Qaida, it’s Russia. I don’t make that up. I’m suddenly thinking, what—maybe I didn’t check the calendar this morning. I didn’t know we were back in 1975.”

CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Barack Obama | Iraq | War on Terror |

Friday March 30, 2012

“For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq.”

“Change is the fact that for the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. We refocused our efforts on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. And thanks to the brave men and women in uniform, al Qaeda is weaker than it has ever been. Osama bin Laden is no more. We’ve begun to transition in Afghanistan to put them in the lead, and start bringing our troops home from Afghanistan. That’s what change is.”

CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Barack Obama | Iraq |

Tuesday January 24, 2012

“A…partnership with Afghanistan so that it is never again a source of attacks against America.”

“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.”

CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Barack Obama | Iraq | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“Go to zero with foreign aid for all of those countries.”

“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.”

CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Iran | Iraq | Israel/Palestine | Rick Perry | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“We’re under attack by people.”

“The right course for America is to recognize we’re under attack. We’re under attack by people, whether they’re Al Qaeda or other radical violent jihadists around the world, and we’re going to have to take action around the world to protect ourselves. And hopefully we can do it as we did with Osama bin Laden, as opposed to going to war as we had to do in—in the case of—of Iraq. The right way, Congressman Paul, in my view, is—to keep us from having to go to those wars is to have a military so strong that no one would ever think of testing it. That’s the kind of military we have to have, and we have to pursue our interests around the world.”

CATEGORIES: American Exceptionalism | Iraq | Islamophobia | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“They’ve killed Americans. We go anywhere they are, and we kill them.”

“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.”

CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Iraq | Mitt Romney | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“We’re not leaving Afghanistan and the American people are sick and tired of it.”

“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…”

CATEGORIES: Afghanistan | Iraq | Ron Paul | War on Terror |

Monday January 16, 2012

“There’s a difference between military spending and defense spending.”

“You don’t understand there’s a difference between military spending and defense spending. Just because you spend a billion dollars on an embassy in Baghdad, bigger than the Vatican, you consider that defense spending. I consider that waste.”

CATEGORIES: Iraq | Ron Paul | War on Terror |