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.

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.

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

I believe we've... we've worked very hard with the Iraqis to build a better place ever since the fall of Saddam's government.

I think you also understand that one of the key things that's got to be done in Iraq is to build a mentality of understanding that the military needs to be subordinate to civilian control and respectful of its own people.

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

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