Quotes from confirmation hearing for Gen. Petraeus

Quotes from the Senate confirmation hearing Thursday for Gen. David Petraeus, commander to U.S. troops in Iraq, to head U.S. Central Command, and Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, who served as Petraeus' deputy for 15 months, to become the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq:

"There has been a significant increase in the capacity, as well as the capability, of the Iraqi forces. And even though, for example, the operation in Basra got off to a shaky start, what preceded it was unprecedented, and that is the deployment - and, really, throughout that week - of over a division's worth of Iraqi forces. That's a very substantial movement and something that would have been un-thought of ... a year ago." - Petraeus.

"Iran continues to be a destabilizing influence in the region. It persists in its nontransparent pursuit of nuclear technology and continues to fund, train and arm dangerous militia organizations. Iran's activities have been particularly harmful in Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, and Afghanistan. In each location, Tehran has, to varying degrees, fueled proxy wars in an effort to increase its influence and pursue its regional ambitions." - Petraeus.

"The differences between Iraq and Afghanistan could not be starker. I mean, you have one country which has what now may be the largest oil reserves in the world - it certainly is number two or number three - and pumping oil at substantial rates and another country that generates - I believe it's about $700 million in a year toward its own budget. So Afghanistan clearly is going to require very substantial assistance from the international community for a number of years and very important that we continue it, remembering what it was that took place on that soil and the reason that we went there." - Petraeus.

"I would not take this job if I didn't think that we could be successful. Senator, I believe that we have made significant progress, specifically over the last 18 months or so, and I do believe that we are headed in the right direction. I will not say that we are out of the woods yet, but I would say that we are clearly headed in the right direction." - Odierno.

"At the present time, only nine of 18 provinces have been turned over to Iraqi control. It's been 157 days since the last province, Basra, was turned over to Iraqi control, and 157 days is the longest stretch between the turnover of a province to Iraqi control since the first province was turned over in July of 2006." - Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

"General Petraeus, you made brief reference to the fact that we've now seen this past week the lowest incidence of violence in Iraq in four years and that maybe this week would be even lower. ... Well, it went from almost 1,600 incidents a little over a year ago to under 400. So that's a 75 percent reduction, and that's really a transformative event, I think, and we're proud of that." - Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.