The first step for a leader is to be right with yourself. Integrity is the basis of leadership.

I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.

In any country, if you don't have countervailing institutions, the power of any one president is problematic for democratic development.

You cannot be on one hand dedicated to peace and on the other dedicated to violence. Those two things are irreconcilable.

We have to recognize that the reason that the global order that we've enjoyed and almost take for granted over the last several years exists is that after World War II, the United States and its allies tried to build an antidote to what they had seen between World War I and World War II. There, they'd seen protectionism, beggar-thy-neighbor trading policies, so they said, we'll build an open international economy. And they did that.

There's no doubt that it's still a dangerous place, Afghanistan. The fortunate thing is that the United States was helping to provide security for Chairman Karzai. And it shows that the United States is committed to that regime.

Everybody in the world is capable of democratic development. Some people in the world are unlucky enough to get stuck with really bad political leadership and with really bad political institutions.