I think this is the biggest lesson a president or any of us who has responsibility to govern have to learn: There are always consequences to actions that you take. There are consequences to inaction.

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

Politics or ideology must not get in the way of sound planning.

Foreign policy is all about a universe of bad decisions, imperfect decisions; every situation is different. The dynamics, the atmospherics, the people, the pressures, the geopolitical realities shift.

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.

You can have all the capabilities; if you don't have the quality people, you don't have much.

(The) chain of command has failed over the years, obviously, for a lot of reasons.