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 don't believe Iran is a suicide state.

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

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.

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.

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

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.