Those in medical status, they should be in the improved level of billets, those that are air conditioned and have some of the other improvements, like indoor latrines.

It is important that these plans be available for implementation when the security conditions and the capabilities of the Iraqi Security Forces might enable us to do so, ... Please develop a plan that would enable us on fairly short notice to curtail tour lengths for our deployed and deploying soldiers.

We're going to move to make those improvements.

If you look at the operational environment in which we're now operating and the one we think we'll be operating in the future, we think that is not where we should put our focus.

Public safety remains our principal interest. The Army has demonstrated since 1990 that it can safely destroy these chemical munitions, having already destroyed over 8,000 tons of chemical agent and over 1.3 million munitions without harming human health or the environment.

I want to emphasize that what happened here at Fort Stewart is not just a Fort Stewart issue, ... It's an Army issue. The people at Fort Stewart did what they could with what they had, but the Army has more assets and we'll focus those assets to solve any problems we've found here.