I'm Living The Dream.

Fighting In Cities Is A Totally Different Endeavor Than Obviously Fighting Out In The Open.

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.

I Am Neither A Pessimist Nor An Optimist. I Am A Realist, And The Reality In Iraq Is That It Has Been Very Hard And It Continues To Be Hard.

I Did A Week-long Assessment In 2005 At (then Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld's Request. Following Our Return, I Told Him That Afghanistan Was Going To Be The Longest Campaign Of What We Then Termed "the Long War."

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.