So, these political activities will create friction in and of themselves, and in this environment of friction there'll be additional violence.

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.

Clearly the Secretary of Defense, my boss, would like nothing better than to get Osama bin Laden and to get... to ensure the complete defeat of al-Qaida, because we know that al-Qaida is planning operations against the United States even as we speak here.

But the key shift in focus will be from counter-insurgency operations to more and more cooperation with Iraqi security forces and to building Iraqi security capacity.

But as we move from this period of what many Iraqis regard as perceived occupation, we need to move towards one of partnership.

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.