We have an interest in combating tactics in war that are abhorrent and that only fuel terrorism because they incite people on the ground.

I think that the only time we will really know what then-President Trump is going to do about the set of challenges that confront him is after he has sat down with his advisers as the commander in chief, when he's looking at the threats and the intelligence from the standpoint of being the number one decider, when he's hearing from his secretary of defense, his chairman, who was the same chairman President Obama had, Chairman Joe Dunford, who is an outstanding public servant, who has led our anti-ISIL effort, on which we're making great progress.

My basic feeling about military intervention is that it should be a last resort, undertaken only to stave off large-scale bloodshed.

No more than a surgeon can operate while tweeting can you reach your potential with one ear in, one ear out. You actually have to reacquaint yourself with concentration. We all do.

My favorite things in life are my children. If somebody wants to understand me, there's no better window into that than my children.

I joke that I spent 38 years scouring the globe, going to war zones, trying to find the person with my exact birthday.

I think about Syria when I go to bed at night.