Let me remind you all that the first task of American foreign policy is to reduce threats to the United States.

The government can give citizens opportunity and it's their responsibility to take advantage of it.

The American political system is so porous, it's so open, it's so frustrating for those who are trying to make policy.

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

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.

While analogies are useful, however, they can also be misleading. They smuggle in assumptions that can be wrong.

The main division in the world is between democratic and undemocratic countries.