I think the primary message to the world is that the United States is going to remain the strongest military power in the world.

I'm not big on commissions.

I don't usually comment on columnists' ideas of what I'm thinking. That's a dangerous game to get into.

You don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on.

The terrorism from 9/11 has metastasized. It's metastasized in Iraq and Syria, in Nigeria, in Somalia, in Yemen and in other places in North Africa. We need a very comprehensive strategy to deal with that threat.

After every major conflict - World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the fall of the Soviet Union - what happened was that we ultimately hollowed out the force, largely by doing deep across-the-board cuts.

I don't think I should penalize people who were doing their duty.