I think no commander ever is going to come out and say, 'I'm confident that we can do this.

The president and I sat down in the Oval Office, and he expressed very clearly that what he wants from me is my best professional military advice.

The job of the leader is to get the big ideas right.

Iraq has gone from being on the brink to being on the mend, and it clearly has some big advantages.

People often ask, why aren't you reading about what it is you're working on right now? And the truth is, you only get three pages a night before your eyelids close.

We cleared many of their towns and cities and rural areas of al-Qaida Iraq and other insurgents.

Afghanistan has other enormous challenges as well, including a political system that is still very much developing, although there has been some progress in the past several years.