FACTBOX: Quotes from U.S. lawmakers on Afghan policy

(Reuters) - The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, and the U.S. ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, testified to Congress on Tuesday about President Barack Obama's war strategy.

Here are some of the lawmakers' comments:

REPRESENTATIVE IKE SKELTON, HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRAT

"Many in the press have compared the increase in forces in Afghanistan to the surge in Iraq. I do not think such comparisons are wise or fair. As a percentage of the forces on the ground, the increase ordered by President Obama is much larger than the increase in Iraq ...

"While I do have questions about implementation, I do not have any doubt that we must succeed in Afghanistan, that the president is right to order the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops on top of the troops he already approved, and that the new strategy provides a good path for success."

REPRESENTATIVE HOWARD MCKEON, THE COMMITTEE'S RANKING REPUBLICAN:

"It's time that we conclude the chapter on the war debate in Washington and write the next chapter on national consensus and mission success ...

"Yet, the president's speech and subsequent testimony last week left me concerned that the administration did not adopt some of the fundamentals of your assessment. Nowhere in your assessment did I see discussion of a date certain to begin withdrawal. In fact, you wrote that 'the long-term fight will require patience and commitment."

REPRESENTATIVE ROSCOE BARTLETT, REPUBLICAN

"Let's imagine I am one of the bad guys ... The president has signaled the drawdown is going to begin in July 2011 ... I am going to make sure conditions on the ground are OK because I am a very patient guy. I am just going to cool it ... These guys will be gone and I can have at it."

"Isn't it going to be hard to recruit Afghans if they know (that) if we are not going to be successful, they are going to have their heads cut off (by the Taliban)?"

"Why won't they just wait us out?"

"They have never had a central government ... It's been tribal rule, why do you think it is going to change? ... It's been a pretend government, hasn't it, sir?"

REPRESENTATIVE ROBERT ANDREWS, DEMOCRAT

"Do you agree with the statement that there is not a robust al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan today? What are we doing to wipe out the al Qaeda sanctuaries in Pakistan?"

"It's pretty clear to me that one of the central points of this mission is to help the Pakistan government survive. We do need to articulate that ..."

"My hope is that the Taliban are degraded to the point ... where we can get both sides of the border dealt with. This is a bi-national problem."

REPRESENTATIVE SUSAN DAVIS, DEMOCRAT

"I tend to think we are still a military at war and not a nation at war. I am not sure we are trying to address that problem."

"I know this is progressive and doesn't happen on a dime. But there may be a time when we see that things are not progressing the way they should. I look to you ... to be able to say that we see some real problems here, and if this continues on a trajectory to where it has been, (that) we can't get to where we want to go -- that it is a bridge too far."

SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN CARL LEVIN, DEMOCRAT

"Our Achilles heel in Afghanistan, in the words of one Marine company commander, is not a shortage of U.S. troops it's a shortage of Afghan troops ... Doubling the number of U.S. troops in the south without a much larger increase in available Afghan troops, will only worsen a ratio under which our forces are already matched up with fewer Afghan troops than they can and should partner with."

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, THE COMMITTEE'S RANKING REPUBLICAN:

"We've all read the reports of differences between you gentlemen (McChrystal and Eikenberry). I know you are both professionals and I trust that any tensions that you may have had are now passed."

SENATOR SUSAN COLLINS, REPUBLICAN

"At one point the Soviet Union had more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and yet they did not prevail. Clearly our goals in Afghanistan are completely different from the British and the Soviets ... but still, that history, the British and the Soviet experience, gives me pause."