Putin wants to reestablish Russian greatness, not as the Cold War, but in 19th century empire terms.

...the fact [is] that our borders leak like a sieve: those things cannot be permitted to continue in good conscience.

Citizenship in the 21st century requires more than paying your taxes and voting and occasionally running for office. That even if you're never in political office, you have political responsibilities. You can make your society stronger and better.

An innocent bureaucratic snafu.

Posterity is the world to come; the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility. We must do what America does best: offer more opportunity to all and demand responsibility from all.

The Reagan-Bush years have exalted private gain over public obligation, special interests over the common good, wealth and fame over work and family. The 1980s ushered in a Gilded Age of greed and selfishness, of irresponsibility and excess, and of neglect.

I made a big mistake. It is indefensible and I am sorry.