Lee Hamilton

Lee Hamilton, director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and former chairman of the US House committees on international relations and intelligence, was Thursday's guest. Here are excerpts from his remarks:

"[It is] unlikely that he had the capacity to use weapons of mass destruction in a massive way - in an effective military way."

"History will write at some point that the president made a bad decision or he made exactly the right decision.... Bush has his legacy riding on this question in many respects."

"You get a sense of a kind of evolving, ad hoc approach to policy. You cannot articulate American foreign policy on the fly, on the wing. You have got to do it comprehensively."

"I think Iran will be the next foreign policy focus for the [US] government in terms of a trouble spot. It is a powerful actor in the region.... Iran is on the verge of change."

"Modest progress has been made. But the overall perception among the American people is: We are still vulnerable.... The big problem on homeland security is priorities. What do you secure? You've got thousands of vulnerable targets, and nobody wants to make the hard judgments."