They basically said that if I didn't show up for school they'd mark me present they wouldn't send the truant officer after me. At 16 I enrolled in something called continuing education. Once a month I'd go out to Jamaica but I didn't take it seriously.

The military is a very cool world to write about. I went down to Ft. Benning Ga. for military training and I learned a lot about soldiers and officers and why they joined up and what their life has been like.

Everything officers go through in any chase anywhere in the country but amped up 100 times! I'm right in the thick of things in a car going like 80 miles an hour and doing 360s in the middle of the road. It was a wild ride.

The senior officer who met with reporters in Baghdad said there had been 21 car bombings in the capital in May and 126 in the past 80 days. All last year he said there were only about 25 car bombings in Baghdad.

Today I can announce a raft of reforms that we estimate could save over 2.5 million police hours every year. That's the equivalent of more than 1 200 police officer posts. These reforms are a watershed moment in policing. They show that we really mean business in busting bureaucracy.

Duty is the great business of a sea officer all private considerations must give way to it however painful it may be.

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.

Our country will I believe sooner forgive an officer for attacking an enemy than for letting it alone.