Morale is good; troops are confident; leaders are capable.

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

But my Arabic is pretty good. It's good enough to have conversations with people, to understand what they say, to understand what they're feeling.

The United States is the most powerful nation on Earth and it just can't walk away from the Middle East and central Asia and the Horn of Africa.

Well, the hardest thing to do, as we know from our own experience on 9/11 is protect everything all the time.

As far as Zarqawi is concerned, there is a network of extremists; it's not just Zarqawi.

Morale is good; troops are confident; leaders are capable.