Although combat operations unseated the Taliban and the Saddam Hussein regime, a poor understanding of the recent histories of the Afghan and Iraqi peoples undermined efforts to consolidate early battlefield gains into lasting security.

The key thing about force protection is... if you focus too much on force protection, and you disengage yourself from the community, you're putting yourself at greater risk because you need to interact with the community in a positive way to gain the intelligence you need.

You have to keep listening and thinking and being critical and self-critical. Remember General Nivelle, in the First World War, at Verdun? He said he had the solution and then destroyed the French Army until it mutinied.

There are two ways to fight the United States military: asymmetrically and stupid. Asymmetrically means you're going to try to avoid our strengths. In the 1991 Gulf War, it's like we called Saddam's army out into the schoolyard and beat up that army.

Hosting a TV show is a full-time job in which success is defined by it never ending.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.

You achieve long-term success step by step. Try to achieve your goals one at a time, like you do target practice.

Goals can help lift me to be one of the best two or three in the world, most definitely. You score the goal that wins the football match five, six, seven times a season: you are one of the best in the world. And that's what I need to do. I need to keep being consistent.