I think it is an opportunity for us, and it's something that needs to be cultivated in order to work to our advantage.

One of the issues that is really quite paramount in Alaskans' mind is the situation over in North Korea.

I know that the President put forth a very broad policy towards Cuba in May of this year.

I just think that right now it's a pretty negative influence.

I was delighted when Ranking Member Biden mentioned that, when he saw Lech Walesa...

I think part of the reason you were hesitant to talk about the torture issue yesterday had to do with the fact that you don't want to define 'torture' too much, because you want a little bit of wiggle room.

What's the status of our troops, and what's our exit strategy?

So the fact that there is a link somewhere between terror and tyranny is not sufficient for us to be making decisions about spending $200 billion to $300 billion or sacrificing the lives of American servicemen and women.

And we are now going to be spending at least $200 billion in Iraq, and we have lost over 1,300 lives and it is counting.

I think it is to move forward. The concern that many of my constituents in Illinois express is that we went into Iraq, at least in their minds, because of a very specific threat of terror, not tyranny but terror.

it's unlikely that I'd be sitting here asking you questions

if our measure is to bring our troops home, and success is measured by whether Iraqis can secure their own circumstances, and if our best troops in the world are having trouble controlling the situation with 150,000 or so, it sounds like…

I never got quite a clear answer to Senator Biden's question as to how many troops, Iraqi troops...

I know that it has a wonderful reputation for bipartisanship

I would urge that there is a clear signal by the administration in its budgeting process this time out that we are moving forward on this.

Is the resistance on those reforms coming simply from countries that are in the midst of development, or are we also seeing resistance from allies, like France and Germany and others?

it appears to be an entirely open-ended commitment.

I think that may be true, in fact, for just the National Guard, alone.