Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality. It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq.

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 don't get into the book-telling business of conversations I have with the president. That's not my style, and I don't think that's a responsible thing to do.

Engagement is not appeasement. Engagement is not surrender.

It is easy to get into war, not so easy to get out.

The Bush administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and elsewhere, and should not be demonized or condemned for disagreeing with them. Suggesting that to challenge and criticize policy is undermining and hurting our troops is not democratic, nor what this country has stood for over 200 years.

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