They are probably sophisticated enough to take all this in and accept it for whatever it is worth.

I appreciate your candor in that regard.

Look, we do not want your brave soldiers dying here, either; I want you to leave Baghdad.

I would encourage you to focus on whatever leverage we have.

This is a legitimate concern for them. They feel that northern Iraq is being used as a safe haven for terror groups to launch attacks on them.

I would encourage you to have--and I'm sure you will--a particularly realistic view of the Iraqi political leadership.

There is that history we bring to this.

Otherwise I am afraid the Iraqis will not take us seriously and the American people will conclude without consequences this really is more of the same.

I think the best thing we can do to support the morale of our troops and defeat our adversaries is to have a policy that maximizes our chances for success.

Many of us feel that it is our responsibility now to step up and to provide better direction to this whole thing.

I for one have concluded that a greater sense of urgency is in order here on their part or it's just not going to work.

A group of us just returned from Turkey last week and they're very concerned about attacks emanating from the Kurdish parts of northern Iraq.