Today the Iraqi citizen sees that America is coming and wants to occupy his country and kill him and he is willing to experience for himself what happened in Palestine.

Is there an equality of power between America and Iraq? Definitely not however the Iraqi people are standing fast and are defending their land courageously.

I think the Iraqi people have shown extraordinary patience and courage in the last few months. They have really put a political system on the way to success to a real democracy here.

Just two weeks ago millions of Iraqis defied the threats of terrorists and went to the polls to determine their own future. I congratulate the Iraqi people for the courage they've shown in making these elections so successful.

No matter what you think about the Iraq war there is one thing we can all agree on for the next days - we have to salute the courage and bravery of those who are risking their lives to vote and those brave Iraqi and American soldiers fighting to protect their right to vote.

The problem is that the Iraqi people are facing atrocities from both sides - Zarqawi and also the American troops at times. The Zarqawi groups uses car bombs the Americans use other bombs. You also know what they do in the prisons.

I am so sick of reading about another car bomb another suicide bomber another 10 20 30 70 100 people dead in a day both Americans and Iraqis.

Insurgents have capitalized on popular resentment and anger towards the United States and the Iraqi government to build their own political financial and military support and the faith of Iraqi citizens in their new government has been severely undermined.

We'll try to include Iraqi officers in our staffs. We will do everything we can to empower Iraqi security forces to stand up on their own and operate where they can alone.