If the staff lacks policy guidance against which to test decisions, their decisions will be random.

Within a week, or a month, Saddam could give his WMD to al-Qaeda.

The United States isn't going to do anything that it's not capable of doing. And if we do something, we'll be capable of doing it.

It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

I am not going to give you a number for it because it's not my business to do intelligent work.

First rule of politics: you can't win unless you're on the ballot. Second rule: If you run, you may lose. And, if you tie, you do not win.

We have an orientation that tends to make us think that everything is our responsibility and that we should be doing this. It is the Iraqis' country, 28 million of them. They are perfectly capable of running that country.