Robert Gates

Our ability to protect other countries is going to be focused on countries like Iran and North Korea.

We will lead the way in reducing our arsenal, but we must always hedge against the dangerous and unpredictable world.

there is absolutely no way we can maintain a credible deterrent and reduce the number of weapons in our stockpile without either resorting to testing our stockpile or pursuing a modernization program.

at a certain point, it will become impossible to keep extending the life of our arsenal, especially in light of our testing moratorium.

we are putting our money where our beliefs are.

Neither the last administration nor this one have any plans to build a missile defense that would undermine Russia's nuclear deterrent.

We are putting our money where our beliefs are.

The new rules will significantly raise the threshold before a service member can be investigated for his or her sexual orientation. Gates said the change reflects common sense and common decency.

We will do it on a province-by-province basis.

These times of economic and fiscal stress place enormous pressure on all of us to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars.

we are monitoring the situation in multiple countries very carefully.

I think they're very impressed with the quality of the Afghan National Army, and believe that it's making good progress.

We will begin that first transition, or that first transfer, if you will, in July 2011.

They need to know this is their fight and that they are going to have to assume responsibility for it.

I am honored to appear with the Secretary of State. Our joint testimony today reflects the close cooperation of our two departments.

I think it'll be a gradual process, much as we saw in Iraq.

health care is eating the Department alive.

I believe we are making some progress, but it is slower and harder than we anticipated.

I fully support the President's decision. The question before us is not whether the military prepares to make this change, but how we best prepare for it.

we cannot afford, as a nation, not to have this airplane.

U.S. troops could leave Afghanistan earlier than planned. Any change in timing would have to be quote, 'conditions based'.

apart from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, my highest priority as Secretary of Defense is improving the outpatient care and transition experience for troops that have been wounded in combat.

The costs of healthcare are eating the Department alive.

the most important military component in the War on Terror is not the fighting we do ourselves, but how well we enable and empower our partners to defend and govern themselves.

Over the long term, we cannot kill or capture our way to victory. Nonmilitary efforts, tools of persuasion and inspiration were indispensable to the outcomes of the defining struggle of the 20th century.