There has, indeed, been very substantial progress in Iraq over the past year - violence is down by 80 percent, civilian deaths by about the same, and so on.

I did a week-long assessment in 2005 at (then Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld's request. Following our return, I told him that Afghanistan was going to be the longest campaign of what we then termed "the long war."

I'm living the dream.

This cannot be the United States being the air force for Shia militias, or a Shia on Sunni Arab fight.

I will not ever run for political office, I can assure you of that.

The Islamic State fighters in Mosul are dead men walking and I think they increasingly know it.

Progress in Iraq has always been about teams of people and teams of teams - and ultimately about young men and women, Iraqi as well as people from the coalition.