I do think about my positions, but I'm not going to be cross-examined as if in a courtroom.
If you think that being asked a direct question about a statement you just made is "cross-examination," then you have obviously never been cross-examined. Calling it "20 questions" or "cross-examination" doesn't make it so - you made a statement predicated on a "successful conclusion" of the mission in Iraq, but you refuse to say what that means.