We must acknowledge that for scores of years the Iraqis have offered martyrs and victims but have not been able to change the regime.

Democracies, unlike dictatorships, are forgiving and generous, but they cannot survive unless they fight.

Justice for the major perpetrators cannot be separated from the vindication of the rights of the individual victim.

Conciliation is not capitulation, nor is compromise to be deemed equivalent to imbalanced concession.

Wishful thinking is one thing, and reality another.

My door will always be open to those who genuinely renounce violence and seek peaceful accommodation into our nascent democracy.

Rather, it is through conciliation and compromise that we are building a fair Iraq, a just state for all its peoples.