President Obama has said that our aspirations should be realistic. We are not going to turn one of the poorest countries in the world, that was plunged into 30 years of war, into an advanced, industrialized, Western-style democracy. What we want to achieve is Afghanistan's capacity to secure and govern itself.

Fighting in cities is a totally different endeavor than obviously fighting out in the open.

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.

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

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.

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.

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