Propaganda was an important arm of the Soviet diplomacy, very important.

You have to look at the history of the Middle East in particular. It has been one of failure and frustration, of feudalism and tribalism.

I am in control here, in the White House.

As I look back at the span of the Cold War in those early days, in the '50s, for example, there was a great deal of Soviet propaganda here in the United States, but it was clumsy, and it was anchored to a lot of ideological support in certain circles in America itself.

We didn't do anything wrong, but among the lessons learned, given the magnitude of the problems we now face in Afghanistan, a major U.S. force on the ground would convince the world we were in for the long-haul recovery of a country devastated by 21 years of warfare.

Syria is a terrorist state by any definition and is so classified by the State Department. I happen to think Iran is too. Iraq, Iran, Syria, they're all involved.

I probably carry more scar tissue on my derrière than any other candidate-that's political scar tissue.