The president's behind him. If he left tomorrow, (deputy defense secretary) Gordon England would be secretary of defense, and defense policies and what we do in Iraq would look exactly the same. |
There is no way that a terrorist campaign can disrupt the elections in the United States. This is too big a country, too many voters, too many polling places, |
There's a lack of adult leadership on both sides. |
This is the equivalent of a comet hitting the planet. Of all the things that are in the world, why are we fixated on this one thing. Scanning containers full of sneakers for a 'nuke in the box' is not a really thoughtful thing. |
We have a history of occupations that goes back to the American Revolution, and we always do it the same way: We always just figure it out when we get there. |
When we started out doing this, basically what we were doing was throwing money at the problem. In most cases, people had absolutely no idea how to spend the money. |
Where do you stage? Where do you go? You have to have communications, you have to have electricity, you have to have dry ground. These are all things that have to exist, and these are all things that don't exist in New Orleans. |
You can't make a million people happy. There's going to be a lot of debates. I don't think you can minimize the role Congress is going to play in what kind of legislation they formulate to guide the reconstruction. There will be enormous pressure to do something quickly. It's all new virgin territory, and it'll be tough to craft an optional strategy. |