Today's Headlines And History's Judgement Are Not

I'm Very Proud That We Stood For The Proposition That No Man, Woman Or Child Should Ever Have To Live In Tyranny. We Believed In Democracy And Promoted It.

I Have No Doubt That As The Iraqi Security Forces Get Better, And They Are Getting Better And They Are Holding Territory And They Are Doing These Things With Minimal Help, That We Are Going To Be Able To Bring Down The Levels Of Our Forces. And I Have No Doubt That That's Going To Happen In A Reasonable Time Frame.

It Is A Longstanding Principle That Sitting National Security Advisers Do Not Testify Before The Congress.

What Surprised Me Was The Angst At Our Democracy. And I Understand It - I Teach At A University And Feel It In My Students - But What I've Tried To Say To People Is That We Have Amazing Institutions, But Nobody Ever Said We Were Perfect. We Struggled Before And We're Struggling Now, And We're Going To Struggle Every Day. We're A Work In Progress. That's Why The American Experience Is So Important For Us To Remember, And For Us To Be A Beacon For Others To Enjoy Those Same Rights.

What We Will Not Wait For Is That Particular Nexus Of Terrorism, Weapons Of Mass Destruction That Is Extremism, And The Technology To Come Together In A Way That Is Harmful To The United States.