Brainy folks were also present in Lyndon Johnson's administration especially in the Pentagon where Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's brilliant 'whiz kids' tried to micro-manage the Vietnam war with disastrous results.

Think of what happened after 9/11 the minute before there was any assessment there was glee in the administration because now we can invade Iraq and so the war drums beat.

Thus what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.

Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism have reduced the pace of military transformation and have revealed our lack of preparation for defensive and stability operations. This Administration has overextended our military.

Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.

The Obama administration believes in experts and blue-ribbon panels. They believe in creating new agencies and boards. They believe in all that but they just don't trust the entrepreneur's ability to grow her own business and to create jobs.

Science doesn't in the slightest depend on trust. It depends completely on the belief that you can demonstrate something for yourself.

If the president is failing to disclose material facts with regard to legislation being presented to the Congress on a question as important as war and peace I think it does impair the level of trust that the House and the Senate have for this administration.

Americans have been given goals to achieve in Iraq but not the standards by which to measure progress. And the only assurance Americans have been given that we can reach those goals is to trust the President and his Administration at their word.

If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean he has nothing I will apologize to the nation and I will not trust the Bush administration again.