Whatever the history of U.S. intervention in Iraq, our priorities now should be to protect our people and defend our national security interests, not to try to resolve an intractable religious divide some 1,500 years in the making.

I get that the media wants us to play theater critics and critique every other proposal. What I`m focusing on are my own policy proposals.

But we don't have a right to force anyone to abandon their faith. It is one of the foundational commitments of who we are as Americans to respect diversity.

We need to focus on radical Islamic terrorists and we need to stop them before they carry out acts of terror.

It's just like calling homosexuals 'gays.' Gay means happy! You know, it's just to try to dilute it so that it becomes socially acceptable, and if you say anything against homosexual marriage or anything - 'Oh, you're not tolerant.' So we're supposed to prostitute our principles, on behalf of tolerance.

You think defending this nation [americans] is expensive, try not defending it. That's a lot more expensive.

But you know what? There's far more pain involved in rolling over, far more pain in hiding.