As a person, I have never been discourteous or nasty to anybody. I may have stood my ground a bit too directly, a bit too firmly, and I believe I have, over a number of years, learned to be a little less direct.

Of course everybody's thinking evolves over time.

I know more now than I did in the past about the process of democratization. I know more about the pitfalls.

The most stupid mistake a counter-insurgency operation can make is alienating the population. If you alienate the population, you're finished.

It does surprise me that intelligent people in the 21st century could claim that if you respond to the terrorists with force, you spawn terrorism, but if you appease them, you somehow tame them. This argument, as I said, is very interesting, and very surprising.