Robert Gates: “We want everything that's possible, and a lot of things that aren't possible, in a new system.”

The President does not like having countervailing opinions, he does not like being disagreed with.

My staff and I have learned that it was nearly impossible to get accurate information and answers to questions such as, 'How much money did you spend?' and, 'How many people do you have?'

we always discover . . . that we [go] too far in cutting

Putin feels that he has a destiny to recreate the Russian Empire.