Michael G. Mullen

We are not going to solve that debt problem on the back of DOD.

The greatest threat to our national security is our debt

I know you share my conviction that, having shed the blood we shed in places like Mosul, Fallujah, Tikrit, and Basra, we owe it not just to the Iraqi people, but to the memory of those who never made it home, to get this partnership right…

We must work toward a reconciliation process internal to Afghanistan that provides for redress of grievances and a state-to-state interaction between Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve matters of mutual concern.

In the back end of previous conflicts, we were able to contract our equipment inventory by shedding our oldest capital assets, reducing the average age of our systems. We cannot do this today because of the high pace and duration of combat…

The presence piece of this is so powerful in so many ways, and it's enduring, and it prevents conflicts.

Our review will be based on strategy and risks, not simply budgetary math.

The cumulative stress of 9 years of war is substantial and growing.

We remain a Nation at war on multiple fronts.

Climate change . . . not only could produce a humanitarian crisis, but also could generate conditions that could lead to failed states and make populations more vulnerable to radicalization.

I believe that our debt is the greatest threat to our national security.

Our plan is to continue to strengthen our conventional capabilities as we reduce the role of nuclear weapons in deterring non-nuclear attacks.