From watching the news one would think the Iraqis want us out of their country. But an overwhelming majority of Iraqis support our involvement there. Our freedom is contagious and we helped liberate them.
If we are lucky, and George W. Bush is right, we are about to witness the War of the Happy Iraqis.
We need to make it clear that we will withdraw from Iraq within 6 to 9 months - so that the Iraqis will know that they must stand up and defend the opportunity given to them.
The new troops in Iraq need to be Iraqi troops.
The kind of Iraq that emerges from all of this is ultimately out of our hands.
Iraq will succeed because the Iraqis will see to it that they succeed. And our job is to help them succeed. That's our job.
We'll try to include Iraqi officers in our staffs. We will do everything we can to empower Iraqi security forces to stand up on their own and operate where they can alone.
It was right to overthrow Saddam Hussein. It was the regime itself that was a threat. I think in hindsight, what I would have done is turn authority back over to Iraqis much more quickly and say: "Your country, you figure out how to run it."
Once the people of Iraq know when the U.S. troops will leave, their confidence in the U.S. will increase.
Over time, the desire of Iraqis to contribute to their own security has manifested itself in citizens volunteering for the police, the Army, and concerned local citizen programs.
