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.

Closing Guantanamo Bay is not a military solution. The closing of that prison, which I support, I supported it when I was in the Senate, requires more than just a military dimension.

Institutions are imperfect. Governments surely are. People are.

We can't ... take that piece of reality in this business and set that aside and say, well, that doesn't count. And the Republicans on my side understand that the majority is in fact up for grabs next year. So there's not a decision made up here that doesn't have that factor coursing through that current.

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

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

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