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.

We've got to ensure that the quality and the capability of these forces will be good enough to withstand the challenges that the insurgents and the terrorists will present to the new Iraqi government.

Everybody needs to understand that I learned Arabic from the United States Army as a second language. I never spoke it at home.

Certainly our goal is to leave Iraq, but we can't leave Iraq with our forces until we know that the Iraqi security forces are capable and efficient enough to defend the sovereignty of the nation.

We'll try to include Iraqi officers in our staffs. We will do everything we can to empower Iraqi security forces to stand up on their own and operate where they can alone.

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.