Counting the numbers of troops is not going to define our success here.There is no military success, ultimately, to Afghanistan. The Afghans themselves are going to define what happens here. And we have to convince ourselves that we have a strategy in place that empowers them to do that and that is realistic in what our expectations are from them and on what schedule.

We invoke the sacrifices of our fallen heroes in the abstract, but we seldom take time to thank them individually.

Every election is different, every context is different. I believe the record I was allowed to help establish by the side of the president Bill Clinton was important.

The problem is, you have to look at Afghanistan also in a global context where we've canceled basically our missile defense system undercutting the Czech Republic in Poland. We've I think not dealt with Iran with the kind of resolve that would show that we understand the nature of that threat.

I think the most important thing for us to make judgments about is what can we really do? What can we achieve?

Deliberation is a good thing when it comes to fighting wars.

I still believe the Lewinsky investigation was way off from the focus of what Whitewater was, which turned out to be nothing at the end of the process. And I think that there were people who were determined as political opponents to not allow his presidency to succeed.