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

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

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

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.

The United States doesn't do what it does in the world for altruistic reasons. Nobody set out to be the world's government.

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

In my experience, it's not just that serious books get a hearing on comedy shows. But serious books get a serious hearing, as well as a funny one, on comedy shows.