The process also gives us an opportunity to get demographics and meet the people that we are serving.
Anyone that's been over here at least once, ... realizes that the way out is not by shooting a rifle. You have to build your way out. We have to help build institutions. We have to help build communities. It's the only way.
I get just about everything I ask for, ... But, yes, I'd like to have a whole battalion of civil affairs Marines out there backing me up. I wish there were more of us so we could be the main face of the Marine Corps that people see here.
We want to build Iraq's capacity to take care of its own problems, ... It's like the mother who holds the bottle for the baby. How long are we going to hold onto the bottle?
When we can show direct battle damage, it's much easier for me to get funding.
I could get the funding in two weeks, two months -- or never. It's all about how immediate and necessary the needs are,
