The president is trying to head out in a direction that avoids civil war in Iraq, and that prevents the insurgents from dominating and establishing some sort of fundamentalist regime.

A catastrophic outcome in Iraq would affect directly or indirectly all members of the (NATO) alliance as well as countries from South East Asia to the northern hemisphere,

He's between Israel on one side, Iraq and Syria on the other, ... He knows that the Palestinians have tried to overthrow him on a number of occasions, so he has to navigate with extraordinary delicacy.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

American abdication in Iraq will have global consequences if a fundamentalist radical state were to emerge in Baghdad.

If a radical government emerges in Baghdad or if any part of Iraq becomes what Afghanistan used to be, a training ground for terrorists, then this will be a catastrophe for the Islamic world and for Europe, much as they may -- reluctant as they may be to admit it -- and eventually for us.