I Am Not A Politician, And I

Al-qaida In Particular Remains Dangerous, And There [in Iraq] Is Some Residual Militia And Special Group Presence. There Are Still Between 20 And 30 Attacks Per Day, Still Periodic Car Bombs And Still Loss Of Innocent Civilians.

There [in Afghanistan] Is Also A Growing Insurgency Threat From Al-qaida, The Taliban And Other Extremist Elements, Some Of Which Comes From The Tribal Areas Of Pakistan, As Well As From The Northwest Frontier Province And Baluchistan.

I Think No Commander Ever Is Going To Come Out And Say, 'i'm Confident That We Can Do This.

The Sunni Arabs Began To Realize That They Had Made A Huge Mistake By Not Voting In The Election Of 2005 And By Not Being Part Of The New Iraq. They Had Reasons For This: They Were Effected By The Disestablishment Of The Military And By De-baathification (the Dismantling Of Saddam Hussein's Party) In Winter 2007-2007. They Increasingly Recognized That Their Future Lay In Being Part Of The Solution Rather Than A Continuing Part Of The Problem.

First And Foremost Is To Not Allow The Reestablishment, If You Will, Of An Extremist Sanctuary That Can Export The Kind Of Terror That Ended Up With Terrorists Taking Down The World Trade Center And Plowing Into The Pentagon And A Field In Pennsylvania. That's The Point: We Started This War Because The Sept. 11 Attack Came From This Area. And We Do Not Fight Alone, But With Some 40 Allies Who Share That View.