We dont see that the Taliban ultimately can succeed, and its a combination both of what the international community can do to support Afghanistan, not just in the short term, but over the long term.

I can't spend a lot of time worrying about the numbers at home. I've got to focus on the mission.

The Russians haven't helped us at all in the fight against ISIS. When you total up the numbers of sorties that have been going into Syria, aircraft attacks, if you will, going into Syria, when the Russians said they were going to assist, we got a very small number of Russian sorties.

One would think that if you're anonymous, you'd do anything you want, but groups have their own sense of community and what we can do.

Protecting Afghan civilians is the cornerstone of our mission.

When we talk about carpet bombing ISIL, that's what it looks like, creating huge numbers of civilian casualties, which increases the numbers of refugees flowing out of the region, which increases the misery of the Syrian people.

Planning is really the hallmark of any large military formation, and it's typically a weakness in new formations and new armies.