Marines are very good at fighting... And if Gen. Franks wants fighters on the ground and he puts Marines in, he'll have what he wants.

We prefer that the leaders of the Iraqi armed forces do the honorable thing; stop fighting for a regime that does not deserve your loyalty.

There has not yet been a major ground offensive battle... There are, we know, negotiations going on between the opposition forces and the Taliban leadership for surrender.

I can tell you categorically that any mal- treatment of any detainees by U.S. forces or coalition forces is totally unacceptable - that our orders have and will continue to be that we will treat everyone in our charge with - humanely and with respect.

I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.

I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts... I do not believe that the Armed Forces of the United States are well served by saying through our policies that it's OK to be immoral in any way, not just with regards to homosexuality.

Intelligence we gathered at the time indicated that this was in fact leadership and we struck the leadership.