The Taliban were in power when al Qaeda was allowed and invited in to establish the sanctuaries in Afghanistan from which the September 11 attacks were launched.

I do think that over time we want to make clear to Iran the full range of behaviors that we find problematic, that we would like to see change.

Would you consider someone captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan an enemy combatant to be held by our forces?

Anything you can think of to deal with this problem, whether you need money or legal changes, we stand ready to help.

Well, that gets us to a point--we are spending money very quickly on some things that are very controversial, and there is a lot of pushback.

Bad teeth are doing more damage to us than the enemy.

This disease is unusual in the sense that it represents what I think is the biggest challenge to the country--demographic changes.

What I've been thinking about doing is in certain selected areas, critical need areas, if you'll stay to 22 years of service you can retire maybe at 59 years old, and just walk your way down to 55 years old, as an incentive to stay on.

I think moving retirement benefits from 30 to 40 years, where you can continue to accrue it, is a good step forward.

I cannot think of a more dire consequence to the United States really in many ways than to have Mexico just collapse.

There's a lot of conflict in Congress and between the parties, and that's just the way democracy works.

Money spent now on Alzheimer's, I think, will pay great dividends and will help young Americans realize the American dream.