To gain support in U.S. Congress and from other nations requires clarity, an acceptable mission and an explicit outcome.

Public servants are paid to serve the American people. Do it well.

It is hard to put a price on some things. What is the value of having prevented nuclear weapons from getting into the hands of a dictator like Saddam Hussein - or of Gadhafi?

General Boykin has requested that an inspector general review this matter. And I have indicated that if that's his request, I think it's appropriate.

Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse. Rather it goes to the person who recognizes that life is pretty much a percentage business. It isn't making mistakes that's critical; it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task.

We are in the process of trying to liberate that country. And at the moment where the war ends and the coalition forces occupy the areas where those capabilities - chemical and biological weapons - are likely to be, to the extent they haven't been moved out of the country, it obviously is important to find them.

Don't do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of The Washington Post.