"You know, as director of the CIA, I got an awful lot of intelligence about all the horrible things that could go on across the world."

"After every major conflict - World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the fall of the Soviet Union - what happened was that we ultimately hollowed out the force, largely by doing deep across-the-board cuts."

"Winning in Afghanistan is having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safe haven for Al Qaida or for a militant Taliban that welcomes Al Qaida. That's really the measure of success for the United States."

"Today, I think the attitude is that governing is not necessarily good politics, and the result is that it's much more partisan and much more divided."

"The primary victims of Katrina, those who were given the least help by the government, those rescued last or not at all, were overwhelmingly people of color largely hidden from the mainstream of society."

"Canada is currently the only major industrialized country in the world that does not allow any private administration of health care services that are provided by the public system."

"I don't know what's more embarrassing, these musicians and actors talking about politics in interviews or the media actually giving them credibility about it. It's absurd that a celebrity could speak out on the economy or politics with no more justification than a hit album or a movie."

"War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means."