The less oil the world uses, the less important the region that has so much of it becomes.

The United States contributes to peace in both by serving as a buffer between and among regional powers that, while not preparing for armed conflict, do not fully trust one another.

Societies raise their grandest monuments to what their cultures value most highly. As the tallest buildings in a city noted for tall buildings, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were certainly monumental.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, were spectacular, riveting, grim, costly and searing. The shock that they caused reverberated throughout the world. What happened in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania ended the lives of thousands of people and changed the lives of many more. But they did not change the world.

One thing worse than an America that is too strong, the world will learn, is an America that is too weak.

The war on terror, I believe, will be waged by effective intelligence and police work and cruise missiles.

The real threat to world stability is not too much American power. It is too little American power.