When I wake up in the middle of the night when I hear one of my kids coughing or crying, I think about Syria.

Another longstanding foreign policy flaw is the degree to which special interests dictate the way in which the "national interest" as a whole is defined and pursued.... America's important historic relationship with Israel has often led foreign policy decision-makers to defer reflexively to Israeli security assessments, and to replicate Israeli tactics, which, as the war in Lebanon last summer demonstrated, can turn out to be counter-productive.

It is easy to get used to the morning news, habituated. But don't. The morning news is yours to alter.

Without investing in the rule of law for the poor, none of the other investments we make will be sustainable.

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

Being an occupier is not good for anybody's global standing. It is a catalyst for terrorist recruitment.

When it came to the Vietnam War, Mr. McNamara was an early advocate of escalation but came to realize the flaws in the American approach earlier than many of his colleagues. Yet in public, he continued to defend the war.