Quotables

"We are playing defense. And we are losing."

Unidentified senior military officer on Pentagon reasons for considering the "Salvador operation," a strategy to use highly trained Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen to hunt terrorist leaders in Iraq.

"They are just getting their feet wet with freedom."

Army Staff Sgt. Chris Newcomb explaining why, even in an area of Iraq where American soldiers are popular, the locals distrust authority.

"Buy the rumor, sell the news."

Wall Street explanation for why Apple's shares plummeted before the computer phenom beat most analyst forecasts, selling 4.5 million of its digital-music iPods in the fourth quarter of 2004.

"I just want to carry buckets."

Jimmy Wallet of La Conchita, Calif., vowing to search for other mudslide victims after his family was found dead. He lost his wife and three girls after a mudslide buried their home. Mr. Wallet had gone to fetch ice cream for his family when the mudslide hit.

"$18.8 billion."

Three times the amount pledged to tsunami victims but less than a third of oil revenues collected by the UN to compensate victims of Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. According to an audit released last week, overpayments may have totaled $4 billion.