Jon Stewart

Congress almost universally comes out looking venal and small.

And I thought, boy, that sounds accurate.

Well, it's oftentimes when you'd be testifying in front of Congress in terms of progress on these various situations, and they would, behind the scenes, be somewhat thoughtful and circumspect, and then in front of the cameras,

be complete braying idiots.

Now, one of the things, you know, the bureaucracy of it, the strategy of it, all that stuff is very fascinating, but on a more, on a global picture,

The idea of, you know, you see what's going on in Iraq right now.

It has deteriorated once again into terrible violence, Afghanistan as well.

Does it point to an idea maybe that America fell a little bit too in love with a Marshall Plan idea after wars and that we're applying lessons we learned in World War II

to these new fights in the Middle East, and they're not applicable, and that strategy is doomed to failure to some extent.

Do you think it is that, because that...

Immediately, that's what springs to mind because you bring up an interesting point, and it's a point that has been brought up by, cyclically, you know, Eisenhower was very clear about military industrial complex and that you build this machine and someone's going to want to use it on another country.

Does it trouble you then to see there's a certain rigidity in the way that we look at the world and the way that we look at American power as being infallible?

I want to talk to you about, you know, you have in these years, as the secretary of defense for Bush and for Obama, faced down pretty fearsome adversaries.

The Iraq War, Reconstruction, the Taliban resurgence.

But you talk about a battle you fight with a really terrifying opponent, the VA bureaucracy.

Why is it so difficult

to take care of our men and women when they come home in the manner that they deserve.

And why is it... Why can we move heaven and earth to... Why can we mobilize so quickly and so well for intervention, but not for...

backlogs of paperwork.

Why is that difficult?