I'm a supporter of Israel, always have been.

We live in a world of absolute immediacy. It is an interconnected, combustible world, where technology and many other actions have given nonstate actors a reach, into countries and societies, for both good and evil, that we have never seen before. So it isn't a matter of just state versus state challenges or conflict. The bigger problem is nonstate actors.

Alliances and international organizations should be understood as opportunities for leadership and a means to expand our influence, not as constraints on our power.

I would not trade America's position in the world - our ledger, our debts and assets - for any country in the world. There isn't a country in the world even close to America.

You can't just drop the 82nd Airborne into Baghdad and it will all be over.

[Sheehan] deserves some consideration, and I think that should have been done right from the beginning.

There's always a balance, I think, any administration has to find in not just the military but in any agency of government.