This week, elections won't be perfect. And a successful vote is not the end of the process. Iraqis still have more difficult work ahead. And our coalition and the new Iraqi government will face many challenges.

And I made a tough decision. And knowing what I know today, I would make the decision again.

I would say 30,000 more or less have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis.

I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis.

A fixed timetable of withdrawal would involve the enemy, would confuse the Iraqis and would send the wrong signal to our young men and women in uniform.

quiet steady progress -- those were his words -- as happening in Iraq, though he concedes that reconstruction hasn't gone as smoothly as the administration had hoped.

We are not going to yield the future of Iraq to men like Zarqawi, and we are not going to yield the future of the Middle East to men like bin Laden.

the U.S. is making slow, steady progress in Iraq.

We, of course, don't pay ransom for any hostages. What we will do, of course, is use our intelligence gathering to see if we can't help locate them.

Oh, there's pessimists, you know, and politicians who try to score points. But our strategy is one that is -- will lead to us victory.

Iraqi forces have made real progress. Now there are over 120 Iraqi army and police combat battalions in the fight against the terrorists.

America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am your commander in chief.