I have tried to maintain civil relationships with everyone I meet - and, even if I violently disagree with them, try to be respectful.

It's always fascinating - and sometimes a little disquieting - when two first-rate critics violently disagree.

If Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything in recent history, it is the unpredictability of war and that these things are easier to get into than to get out of, and, frankly, the facile way in which too many people talk about, 'Well, let's just go attack them.'

Be modest, be respectful of others, try to understand.

We do need to think about how we have security - everyone has a right to that - but we also need to think about how we maintain civil rights and personal freedom.

I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the United States' essentially unilaterally disarming.