We are going to have to continue to keep the pressure on the enemy. There is no room for complacency on this.

Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot.

The destruction that we have wreaked in the various theaters in which we've been engaged is really quite astonishing. But again, lethality, destruction, killing doesn't seem to achieve our objectives. So, my own sense is that a lack of lethality does not define the core problem.

What would you do differently as defense secretary to compensate for this record in which the greatest military in the world, as we are constantly told, doesn't get the job done?

I find it disturbing that no member of the Senate Armed Services Committee is willing to acknowledge that record of failure and to ask our next secretary of defense what he proposes to do to amend that sorry record.

I don't lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

There is no corporation in the world that would, in a competitive environment, try and concentrate all decisions at the corporate level.