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.

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

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

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

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.

And so I think that if the person has the funds, the network, and the equipment to do this, and also the experience, which is the key factor, then they can be quite deadly.

And over time, I think, as Iraqi security capacity builds, you'll see American and coalition presence there decline.