I am fully supportive of 'open service' and committed to LGBT military families.

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

And I want every one of you, every one of us, 100 senators to look in that camera, and you tell your people back home what you think. Don't hide anymore; none of us. That is the essence of our responsibility. And if we're not willing to do it, we're not worthy to be seated right here. We fail our country. If we don't debate this, if we don't debate this, we are not worthy of our country. We fail our country.

This current government in Iraq has never fulfilled the commitments it made to form a unity government with the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shia. We have worked hard with them within the confines of our ability to do that but we can't dictate to them.

The United States can't impose democracies. We can't impose our will. The Russians found that out in Afghanistan.

There has to be a reason and objective (to air strikes). What does it do to move the effort down the road for a political conversation?

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