Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up.

I think the American people want to see what we want to see, and that is for the Iraqi people to have a free, open, fair election, for their forces to be built up, for our reconstruction money to be used well, and for Iraqi security forces to take over so we can start bringing our troops home.

Decision-making is lonely.

None of us can change our yesterdays but all of us can change our tomorrows.

Let's not forget that Congress bears a lot of responsibility for many of the problems we have now

Our senior officers knew the war was going badly. Yet they bowed to groupthink pressure and kept up pretenses. ...Many of my generation, the career captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels seasoned in that war, vowed that when our turn came to call the shots, we would not quietly acquiesce in halfhearted warfare for half-baked reasons that the American people could not understand.

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.