Nobody's more mindful of the sacrifices of our troops than those of us that command them.

Oh, the transition concerns me because as we move towards an important political event, it's clear to me that the terrorists and insurgents will move as hard as they can to disrupt this process.

You know as well as I do that counterinsurgency is a very nuanced type of military operation.

You don't build a new power plant in the United States overnight. It takes years to build.

Capturing any member of any terrorist cell or any insurgent cell that we may happen to come across is always very, very valuable, and the thing that interests me is that in most instances after a time people talk and they tell us what they know.

But the truth of the matter is that there is there is an opportunity for them to participate in the economic and political future of the country and certainly in the security life of the country.

I don't believe Iran is a suicide state.