Human-rights advocates for example claim that the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners is of a piece with President Bush's 2002 decision to deny al Qaeda and Taliban fighters the legal status of prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions.

The longer we go without strong leadership from the Administration and until we see significant progress in the day-to-day lives of the Iraqi people the more difficult it will become to sustain the support of the American people and Congress for the current course.

I urge the Iraqi leadership for sake of its own people... to seize this opportunity and thereby begin to end the isolation and suffering of the Iraqi people.

Almost all Iraqis with any previous experience in the intelligence business are Sunni Arab increasing the risk of penetration of the new intelligence apparatus by the insurgency.

They have involved co-operation between the Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda operatives on training and combined operations regarding bomb making and chemical and biological weapons.

I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way.

We've persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people - a belief that out of the ashes of war a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq we have met our responsibility. Now it's time to turn the page.

The U.S. will ignore the opinion of the Iraqi people and it will compose the new government according to its own desires.

If it does not serve the Iraqi people there are only political means that must be followed to reform the government - a new government that we must give a chance to prove that it is there to serve the people.

We got rid of a terrible dictator. We gave the Iraqi people an opportunity for a new life under a representative form of government.