Don't forget Yemen, where there are also extremist elements, as we saw recently.

The fact is that Iran doesn't want to see the Taliban come back any more than do most Afghan citizens.

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

I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago - I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago - whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden.

If you look at casualties, you find countries that had much higher loss rates per capita than the US. Denmark comes to mind, the United Kingdom, they have suffered heavy losses at various points, the Germans as well.

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

US forces have been increased [in Afghanistan ] from some 21,000 to about 31,000 over the past two years and a number of coalition countries have also increased their forces, there still are not sufficient troops.