Mr. Secretary, thank you for your willingness to continue to serve.

It is going to require a political resolution and a military resolution.

Thank you, General. As you accept this challenge, obviously our best wishes go to you for a huge success.

General Casey, first of all let me just echo the sentiments of all of us in thanking you and your family for the terrific commitment that you have all made to the service to our country and to tell you how much we appreciate that commitment.

I believe that this is an extremely important priority, since, in the end, it's the Afghan forces who can best defend and secure Afghanistan.

No.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

What about the improvement of the Iraqi Army to step in behind us and maintain the security in those areas--particularly of Baghdad, that we have at this point in time, cleaned out, and are now holding?

I have never known anyone who has had more commitment and a higher interest in the men and women in our military.

I'm pleased to hear you say you're going to put a lot of emphasis on making sure that quality of life gets better for these folks.

At this point in time, without knowing what's going to be said in this report next month, are we seeing the kind of positive results that would justify-- irrespective of whether or not we have the soldiers to go back in and replace those folks--are we justified in thinking that we can reduce the size of the force structure next spring?