I was in high school, and I was the guy that always got cast in the school play. Theater is huge in high school in Minnesota, and I knew that I was very good at that, and gifted, and I was 'the guy,' but it still wasn't something I ever thought of as 'a job' or something that one could do professionally.

It goes all the way back to 'Psycho.' Movies with twists like that are memorable because they're so simple.

Let me tell you something, planes and kids... I've got a 3 and 1 year old, I don't wish that on anybody.

I'm a good dad; I spend a lot of time with my kids.

Some have argued that confronting the threat from Iraq could detract from the war against terror. To the contrary, confronting the threat posed by Iraq is crucial to winning the war on terror.

When I arrived in the summer of 2009 to command the war in Afghanistan, I entered an effort that was failing. Many Afghans, some ISAF coalition members, and much of the American public had lost confidence in both the trajectory of the war and our ability to correct it.

Nothing in the world can take my peace away from me.

For Americans of the Greatest Generation that fought World War II and of the Silent Generation that came of age in the 1950s, the great moral and ideological cause was the Cold War. It gave purpose and clarity to our politics and foreign policy, and our lives.