One of the principal qualities that you need as national security adviser is trust, the trust of the president. And that depends on truth and it depends on honesty.

I don't think there's any question that America is safer as a result of the bin Laden operation.

Russians understand strength, and if they feel that their opponents are weak, they will take advantage of it.

Winning in Afghanistan is having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safe haven for Al Qaida or for a militant Taliban that welcomes Al Qaida. That's really the measure of success for the United States.

I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened.

The United States has to be a leader in the world, because the problem is: If we are not leading, nobody else will.

We are a nation at war. This is also a time for hard choices. It's about ensuring that we are able to prevail in the conflicts in which we are now engaged. But it's also about being able to be strong and disciplined in applying our nation's limited resources to defending America.