I don't lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

Marines don't know how to spell the word 'defeat'.

In an interconnected age when opportunistic adversaries can work in tandem to destroy stability and prosperity, our country needs to regain its strategic footing. We need to bring the clarity to our efforts before we lose the confidence of the American people and the support of potential allies.

In this age, I don't care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are: if you cannot create harmony - even vicious harmony - on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete.

I have never been bewildered for long in any fight with our enemies - I was Armed with Insight.

There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.