Colombia is in a risky position. They've got a peace process that's going nowhere, and a drug production problem that's skyrocketing.

Thank God we're going to try to continue and effectively defend our frontiers with the Border Patrol, with the Customs Department, with the Coast Guard, with the Armed Forces.

When I get a very generous introduction like that I explain that I'm emotionally moved, but on the other hand I'm Irish and the Irish are very emotionally moved. My mother is Irish and she cries during beer commercials.

The United States and Mexico are trapped - economically, culturally, politically and because of drug crime - in the same continent.

Experience is valuable only if it's imbued with meaning from which one can draw salient conclusions. Otherwise, experience becomes imprisoning.

Extremely disappointed that corruption may have reached such a level in Mexico.

I'm a professor of national security studies, and I know a lot more about fighting than Rumsfeld does.