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If A Prospective Presidential Approach Can't Be Explained Clearly Enough To Be Understood Well, It Probably Hasn't Been Thought Through Well Enough. If Not Well Understood By The American People, It Probably Won't 'sail' Anyway. Send It Back For Further Thought.

-Donald Rumsfeld

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If A Prospective Presidential

Donald Rumsfeld

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If A Prospective Presidential Approach Can't Be Explained Clearly Enough To Be Understood Well, It Probably Hasn't Been Thought Through Well Enough. If Not Well Understood By The American People, It Probably Won't 'sail' Anyway. Send It Back For Further Thought.

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More From Donald Rumsfeld

It Is Unknowable How Long That Conflict [the War In Iraq] Will Last. It Could Last Six Days, Six Weeks. I Doubt Six Months.

Most Of The 50 Or So Invitations You Receive Each Week Come From People Inviting The President's Chief Of Staff, Not You. If You Doubt That, Ask Your Predecessor How Many He Received Last Week.

If I Know The Answer I'll Tell You The Answer, And If I Don't I'll Just Respond Cleverly.

The United States Isn't Going To Do Anything That It's Not Capable Of Doing. And If We Do Something, We'll Be Capable Of Doing It.

We Do Have A Saying In America: If You're In A Hole, Stop Digging ..... Erm, I'm Not Sure I Should Have Said That.

When Starting At The Bottom, Be Willing To Learn From Those At The Top.

Willing To Learn

First Rule Of Politics: You Can't Win Unless You're On The Ballot. Second Rule: If You Run, You May Lose. And, If You Tie, You Do Not Win.

They May Have Had Time To Destroy Them, And I Don't Know The Answer.

Mass Destruction

Look At Me! I'm Sweet And Lovable!

If In Doubt, Don't. If Still In Doubt, Do What's Right.

Never Hire Anyone You Can’t Fire.

Have A Deputy And Develop A Successor. Don't Be Consumed By The Job Or You'll Risk Losing Your Balance. Keep Your Mooring Lines To The Outside World - Family, Friends, Neighbors, People Out Of Government, And People Who May Not Agree With You.

Move Decisions Out To The Cabinet And Agencies. Strengthen Them By Moving Responsibility, Authority, And Accountability Their Direction.

What Is The Value Of Having Millions Of People In Iraq Not Having A Repressive Regime? What Is The Value Of Having The Iraqi Regime Not Shooting At Uk And Us Aircraft Almost Every Day? What Is The Value Of The Iraqis Having A Free Press? What Is The Value Of The Foreign Minister Of Iraq Going To Paris, Calling For An End Of The Gadhafi Regime And Citing Iraq As A Model, As An Example, That In Fact A Freer Political System Can Exist In That Part Of The World?

Whatever New Threats And Challenges May Emerge, Our Nation Will Be Able To Face Them Squarely, Deal With Them, And Yet Allow Our People To Continue To Live Free And Unafraid. The Decisions You Make, The Courage And Creativity You Bring To Your Responsibilities, Will Determine America's Future. Liberty And Our Way Of Life Are Fragile Gifts - Their Care Is In Your Hands. We Thank You For Stepping Forward To Shoulder That Immense Responsibility. Your Country Is Grateful, And Proud Of Each Of You.

Presidential Leadership Needn't Always Cost Money. Look For Low- And No-cost Options. They Can Be Surprisingly Effective.

Don't Be A Bottleneck. If A Matter Is Not A Decision For The President Or You, Delegate It. Force Responsibility Down And Out. Find Problem Areas, Add Structure And Delegate. The Pressure Is To Do The Reverse. Resist It.

Well, So Be It. Nothing's Perfect In Life, So You Have An Election That's Not Quite Perfect. Is It Better Than Not Having An Election? You Bet.

Know That The Amount Of Criticism You Receive May Correlate Somewhat To The Amount Of Publicity You Receive.

Don't Do Or Say Things You Would Not Like To See On The Front Page Of The Washington Post.

Don't Divide The World Into 'them' And 'us.' Avoid Infatuation With Or Resentment Of The Press, The Congress, Rivals, Or Opponents. Accept Them As Facts. They Have Their Jobs And You Have Yours.

We Do Know That The Iraqi Regime Has Chemical And Biological Weapons. His Regime Has Amassed Large, Clandestine Stockpiles Of Chemical Weapons - Including Vx, Sarin, Cyclosarin And Mustard Gas. His Regime Has Amassed Large, Clandestine Stockpiles Of Biological Weapons—including Anthrax And Botulism Toxin, And Possibly Smallpox.

Being Vice President Is Difficult. Don't Make It Tougher.

Enjoy Your Time In Public Service. It May Well Be One Of The Most Interesting And Challenging Times Of Your Life.

Visit With Your Predecessors From Previous Administrations. They Know The Ropes And Can Help You See Around Some Corners. Try To Make Original Mistakes, Rather Than Needlessly Repeating Theirs.

I Believe What I Said Yesterday. I Don't Know What I Said, But I Know What I Think And I Assume It's What I Said.

If The Staff Lacks Policy Guidance Against Which To Test Decisions, Their Decisions Will Be Random.

It Is Hard To Put A Price On Some Things. What Is The Value Of Having Prevented Nuclear Weapons From Getting Into The Hands Of A Dictator Like Saddam Hussein - Or Of Gadhafi?

Now, Settle Down, Settle Down. Hell, I'm An Old Man, It's Early In The Morning And I'm Gathering My Thoughts Here.

Be Precise. A Lack Of Precision Is Dangerous When The Margin Of Error Is Small.

If You Can't Solve A Problem, Make It Bigger.

I Stand For 8-10 Hours A Day. Why Is Standing Limited To Four Hours?

They Will Do More Whether We Do What We're Doing Or Whether We Don't Do What We're Doing. And The Idea That You Could Appease Them [terrorists] By Stopping Doing What We're Doing Or Some Implication That By Doing What We're Doing We're Inciting Them To Attack Us Is Just Utter Nonsense. It's Just - It's Kind Of Like Feeding An Alligator, Hoping It Eats You Last.

Listening To Both Sides Does Not Necessarily Bring About A Correct Judgment.

There Are People Who In Large Measure Have Information That We Need . . . So That We Can Track Down The Weapons Of Mass Destruction In That Country.

Mass Destruction

Any Country On The Face Of The Earth With An Active Intelligence Program Knows That Iraq Has Weapons Of Mass Destruction.

Mass Destruction

Don't Think Of Yourself As Indispensable Or Infallible. As Charles De Gaulle Said, The Cemeteries Of The World Are Full Of Indispensable Men.

The Absence Of Evidence Is Not Necessarily The Evidence Of Absence

When I Served As Us Ambassador To Nato In The 1970s, The Center Of Gravity In Europe Was France And Germany.

Let Your Family, Staff, And Friends Know That You're Still The Same Person, Despite All The Publicity And Notoriety That Accompanies Your Position.

What Will Follow Will Not Be A Repeat Of Any Other Conflict. It Will Be Of A Force And Scope And Scale That Has Been Beyond What Has Been Seen Before.

A Terrorist Can Attack At Any Time At Any Place Using A Range Of Techniques. It Is Physically Impossible To Defend At Every Time In Every Location Against Every Conceivable Technique Of Terrorism. Therefore, If Your Goal Is To Stop It, You Cannot Stop It By Defense. You Can Only Stop It By Taking The Battle To The Terrorists, Where They Are And Going After Them.

Don't Say 'the White House Wants.' Buildings Can't Want.

... Something Under $50 Billion For The Cost. How Much Of That Would Be The U.s. Burden, And How Much Would Be Other Countries, Is An Open Question.

After The German Abstention At The Un, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle Commented That Germany Doesn't Always Have To Stand On The Side Of Its Traditional Allies. Berlin Can Look For New Partners All Over The World.

There Are A Lot Of People Who Lie And Get Away With It, And That's Just A Fact.

The Secretary Of Defense Is Not A Super General Or Admiral. His Task Is To Exercise Civilian Control Over The Department For The Commander-in-chief And The Country.

I Think All Of Us Have A Sense If We Imagine The Kind Of World We Would Face If The People Who Bombed The Mess Hall In Mosul, Or The People Who Did The Bombing In Spain, Or The People Who Attacked The United States In New York, Shot Down The Plane Over Pennsylvania And Attacked The Pentagon, The People Who Cut Off Peoples' Heads On Television To Intimidate, To Frighten Indeed The Word 'terrorized' Is Just That. Its Purpose Is To Terrorize, To Alter Behavior, To Make People Be Something Other Than That Which They Want To Be.

America Is Not What's Wrong With The World.

One Thing Appears Reasonably Certain, And That's That Those Who Make Allegations Of A Culture Of Deception, Of Intimidation Or Cover-up Need To Be Extremely Careful About Such Accusations.

There Will Be Good Moments, And There Will Be Less Good Moments.

The Most Underestimated Risk For A Politician Is Overexposure.

Our Goal Is To Defend The American People, And To Eliminate Iraq's Weapons Of Mass Destruction, And To Liberate The Iraqi People.

Freedom's Untidy, And Free People Are Free To Make Mistakes And Commit Crimes And Do Bad Things.

There Are A Lot Of Things That Are Said By People In The Military, Or Civilian Life, Or In The Congress, Or In The Executive Branch, That Are Their Views. And That's The Way We Live. We're A Free People. And That's The Wonderful Thing About Our Country.

When Business Accepts Help From The Government, It Can Be Like Going To Bed With A Hippopotamus. It's Nice And Warm For The Moment, But Then Your Bedmate Rolls Over And Crushes You.

Sausage Making And Policy-making Shouldn't Be Seen Close-up.

Success Tends To Go Not To The Person Who Is Error-free, Because He Also Tends To Be Risk-averse. Rather It Goes To The Person Who Recognizes That Life Is Pretty Much A Percentage Business. It Isn't Making Mistakes That's Critical; It's Correcting Them And Getting On With The Principal Task.

It's A Difficult Thing Today To Be Informed About Our Government Even Without All The Secrecy.

Pieces Of Intelligence, Scraps Of Intelligence...you Run Down Leads And You Run Down Leads, And You Hope That Sometimes It Works.

The Federal Government Should Be The Last Resort, Not The First. Ask If A Potential Program Is Truly A Federal Responsibility Or Whether It Can Better Be Handled Privately, By Voluntary Organizations, Or By Local Or State Governments.

I Don't Do Quagmires.

Control Your Own Time. Don't Let It Be Done For You. If You Are Working Off The In-box That Is Fed You, You Are Probably Working On The Priority Of Others.

Most Us Presidents Since World War Ii Have Led Military Actions Without A Declaration Of War By Congress, Though Most, If Not All, Have Properly Consulted And Sought Support From Congress. That Is The Wise Thing To Do.

If A Person Is Determined To Fight To The Death, Then They May Very Well Have That Opportunity.

It Is Very Difficult To Spend "federal (the Taxpayers') Dollars" So That The Intended Result Is Achieved.

There Are Known Knowns; There Are Things We Know We Know. We Also Know There Are Known Unknowns; That Is To Say We Know There Are Some Things We Do Not Know. But There Are Also Unknown Unknowns - The Ones We Don't Know We Don't Know.

Be Yourself. Follow Your Instincts. Success Depends, At Least In Part, On The Ability To 'carry It Off.'

Congratulations

If You Try To Please Everybody, Somebody's Not Going To Like It.

We're Not Running Out Of [fixed] Targets. Afghanistan Is.

In Politics, Every Day Is Filled With Numerous Opportunities For Serious Error. Enjoy It.

I Recognize The Need To Provide The Press - And, Through You, The American People - With Information To The Fullest Extent Possible. In Our Democracy, The Work Of The Pentagon Press Corps Is Important, Defending Our Freedom And Way Of Life Is What This Conflict Is About, And That Certainly Includes Freedom Of The Press.

If You Develop Rules, Never Have More Than Ten.

Preserve The President's Options. He May Need Them.

If You Foul Up, Tell The President And Correct It Fast. Delay Only Compounds Mistakes.

Leave The President's Family Business To Him. You Will Have Plenty To Do Without Trying To Manage The First Family. They Are Likely To Do Fine Without Your Help.

From Where You Sit, The White House May Look As Untidy As The Inside Of A Stomach. As Is Said Of The Legislative Process, Sausage-making And Policy-making Shouldn't Be Seen Close-up. Don't Let That Panic You. Things May Be Going Better Than They Look From The Inside.

Look For What's Missing. Many Advisors Can Tell A President How To Improve What's Proposed Or What's Gone Amiss. Few Are Able To See What Isn't There.

Learn To Say 'i Don't Know.' If Used When Appropriate, It Will Be Often.

A Few. . . Critics Are The Only People I Ever Heard Use The Phrase 'imminent Threat.' I Didn't, The President Didn't.

Inspectors Do Not Have The Duty Or The Ability To Uncover Terrible Weapons Hidden In A Vast Country. The Responsibility Of Inspectors Is Simply To Confirm Evidence Of Voluntary And Total Disarmament. Saddam Hussein Has The Responsibility To Provide That Evidence, As Directed, And In Full

Control Your Time. If You're Working Off Your In-box, You're Working Off The Priorities Of Others. Be Sure The Staff Is Working On What You Move To Them From The President, Or The President Will Be Reacting, Not Leading.

The Price Of Being Close To The President Is Delivering Bad News. You Fail Him If You Don't Tell Him The Truth. Others Won't Do It.

If You Look Ahead 10 Years, I Wouldn't Be A Bit Surprised If The People Of Russia Had Become Fans Of Missile Defence.

"do You Have Any Regrets?" Of Course I Do.

The Reality Is That Terrorists Can Attack Any Time At Any Minute, 24 Hours A Day, Using A Variety Of Techniques, In Any Place At All. And It's Not Possible To Defend In Every Place, Against Every Technique, Against Every Conceivable Approach. It Means That You Can't Stop Every Terrorist Attack. Innocent Men, Women And Children Are Going To Be Killed If Terrorists Are Determined To Do It.

As You Know, You Go To War With The Army You Have, Not The Army You Might Want Or Wish To Have At A Later Time. Since The Iraq Conflict Began, The Army Has Been Pressing Ahead To Produce The Armor Necessary At A Rate That They Believe - It's A Greatly Expanded Rate From What Existed Previously, But A Rate That They Believe Is The Rate That Is All That Can Be Accomplished At This Moment.

Secretary Powell And I Agree On Every Single Issue That Has Ever Been Before This Administration Except For Those Instances Where Colin's Still Learning.

We Are In The Process Of Trying To Liberate That Country. And At The Moment Where The War Ends And The Coalition Forces Occupy The Areas Where Those Capabilities - Chemical And Biological Weapons - Are Likely To Be, To The Extent They Haven't Been Moved Out Of The Country, It Obviously Is Important To Find Them.

There's Another Way To Phrase That And That Is That The Absence Of Evidence Is Not The Evidence Of Absence. It Is Basically Saying The Same Thing In A Different Way. Simply Because You Do Not Have Evidence That Something Does Exist Does Not Mean That You Have Evidence That It Doesn't Exist.

Those Who Made The Decisions With Imperfect Knowledge Will Be Judged In Hindsight By Those With Considerably More Information At Their Disposal And Time For Reflection.

Our Task, Your Task... Is To Try To Connect The Dots Before Something Happens. People Say, 'well, Where's The Smoking Gun?' Well, We Don't Want To See A Smoking Gun From A Weapon Of Mass Destruction.

Mass Destruction

We Do Know Of Certain Knowledge That He [osama Bin Laden] Is Either In Afghanistan, Or In Some Other Country, Or Dead.

Osama Bin Laden

Simply Stated, There Is No Doubt That Saddam Hussein Now Has Weapons Of Mass Destruction.

Mass Destruction

The Worst Mistake Is To Have The Best Ladder And The Wrong Wall.

If A Prospective Presidential Approach Can't Be Explained Clearly Enough To Be Understood Well, It Probably Hasn't Been Thought Through Well Enough. If Not Well Understood By The American People, It Probably Won't 'sail' Anyway. Send It Back For Further Thought.

When You're Skiing, If You're Not Falling You're Not Trying.

At 78 Years Old, I Am Not Surprised At Much Anymore. Germany Has Taken Divergent Positions Before, So Has France, So Has England, So Has The Us.

Politics Is Human Beings; It's Addition Rather Than Subtraction.

Don't Accept The Post Or Stay Unless You Have An Understanding With The President That You're Free To Tell Him What You Think "with The Bark Off" And You Have The Courage To Do It.

To Gain Support In U.s. Congress And From Other Nations Requires Clarity, An Acceptable Mission And An Explicit Outcome.

Congress, The Press, And The Bureaucracy Too Often Focus On How Much Money Or Effort Is Spent, Rather Than Whether The Money Or Effort Actually Achieves The Announced Goal.

I Don't Know Anybody That I Can Think Of Who Has Contended That The Iraqis Had Nuclear Weapons.

When Asked For Your Views, By The Press Or Others, Remember That What They Really Want To Know Is The President's Views.

Members Of The U.s. House And The U.s. Senate Are Not There By Accident. Each Managed To Get There For Some Reason. Learn What It Was And You Will Know Something Important About Them, About Our Country And About The American People.

Death Has A Tendency To Encourage A Depressing View Of War.

When It Comes To Reconstruction, Before We Turn To The American Taxpayer, We Will Turn First To The Resources Of The Iraqi Government And The International Community.

The Cold War Was A War, And We Won It.

The Implication That There Was Something Wrong With The War Plan Is Amusing.

Walk Around. If You Are Invisible, The Mystique Of The President's Office May Perpetuate Inaccurate Impressions About You Or The President, To His Detriment. After All, You May Not Be As Bad As They're Saying.

You Can Have A Broad Popular Democracy Movement And Have It End Being Taken Over By The Most Vicious People And The Result Is You Don't End Up With Free Political Systems Or Free Economic Systems, You End Up With A Handful Of Radicals Controlling The Country.

Treat Each Federal Dollar As If It Was Hard Earned; It Was - By A Taxpayer.

In The Execution Of Presidential Decisions Work To Be True To His Views, In Fact And Tone.

Watch The Growth Of Middle Level Management. Don't Automatically Fill Vacant Jobs. Leave Some Positions Unfilled For 6-8 Months To See What Happens. You Will Find You Won't Need To Fill Some Of Them.

It Is Easier To Get Into Something Than To Get Out Of It.

We Don't Seek Empires.we're Not Imperialistic.

Know That The Immediate Staff And Others In The Administration Will Assume That Your Manner, Tone And Tempo Reflect The President's.

Make Decisions About The President's Personal Security. He Can Overrule You, But Don't Ask Him To Be The One To Counsel Caution.

I Don't Think We'll Discover Anything, Myself. I Think What Will Happen Is We'll Discover People Who Will Tell Us Where To Go Find It. It Is Not Like A Treasure Hunt Where You Just Runaround Looking Everywhere Hoping You Find Something. I Just Don't Think That's Going To Happen. The Inspectors Didn't Find Anything, And I Doubt That We Will. What We Will Do Is Find The People Who Will Tell Us.

The Way To Do Well Is To Do Well.

In 2003, At The Time I Made My "old Europe" Comment, The Center Of Gravity In Nato And Europe Had Long Since Shifted To The East. With The Former Warsaw Pact Countries Joining Nato, The Alliance Has A Different Mix Today. Some People Were Sensitive About My Comment Because They Thought It Was A Pejorative Way Of Highlighting Demographic Realities. Apparently They Felt It Pointed A White Light At A Weakness In Europe - An Aging Population. Europe Has Come Some Distance Since World War Ii In Becoming Europe.

Many People Around The President Have Sizeable Egos Before Entering Government, Some With Good Reason. Their New Positions Will Do Little To Moderate Their Egos.

We [the Usa] Do Have A Big Nation's Problem. We Have The Problem Of A Nation That's Got Two Oceans, Oceans On Either Side. People Come From All Across The Globe And Want To Live Here And They Want To Work Here And They Want To Invest Here. And That's A Good Thing. And They Make Up This Country. But As A People, We [americans] Are Not Highly Skilled In Languages. We're Not Highly Skilled In Knowledge Of Other Cultures. And That's A Problem.

In Our System Leadership Is By Consent, Not Command. To Lead A President Must Persuade. Personal Contacts And Experiences Help Shape His Thinking. They Can Be Critical To His Persuasiveness And Thus To His Leadership.

Don't Necessarily Avoid Sharp Edges. Occasionally They Are Necessary To Leadership.

Don't Speak Ill Of Your Predecessors Or Successors. You Didn't Walk In Their Shoes.

Keep Your Sense Of Humor. As General Joe Stillwell Said, 'the Higher A Monkey Climbs, The More You See Of His Behind'.

Nato Member States Vary Dramatically In Their Capability And In Their Political Steadfastness.

Don't Blame The Boss. He Has Enough Problems.

Beware When Any Idea Is Promoted Primarily Because It Is "bold, Exciting, Innovative, And New." There Are Many Ideas That Are "bold, Exciting, Innovative And New," But Also Foolish.

The Success Of An Organization Will Depend On The People You Surround Yourself With.

Surround Yourself

It Isn't Making Mistakes That's Critical; It's Correcting Them And Getting On With The Principal Task.

I Didn't Advocate Invasion...i Wasn't Asked.

No. That's Someone Else's Business. Quagmire Is - I Don't Do Quagmires.

Oh, Lord. I Didn't Mean To Say Anything Quotable.

In Unanimity There May Well Be Either Cowardice Or Uncritical Thinking.

Arguments Of Convenience Lack Integrity And Inevitably Trip You Up.

The Dead-enders Are Still With Us, Those Remnants Of The Defeated Regimes Who'll Go On Fighting Long After Their Cause Is Lost.

It Is The Photographs That Gives One The Vivid Realization Of What Actually Took Place. (on Photographs From Abu Ghraib Prison.)

Oh My Goodness Gracious, What You Can Buy Off The Internet In Terms Of Overhead Photography. A Trained Ape Can Know An Awful Lot Of What Is Going On In This World, Just By Punching On His Mouse, For A Relatively Modest Cost.

Be Able To Resign. It Will Improve Your Value To The President And Do Wonders For Your Performance.

See That The President, The Cabinet And Staff Are Informed. If Cut Out Of The Information Flow, Their Decisions May Be Poor, Not Made, Or Not Confidently Or Persuasively Implemented.

Information Flow

One Of Your Tasks Is To Separate The 'personal' From The 'substantive.' The Two Can Become Confused, Especially If Someone Rubs The President Wrong.

I Am Going To Leave The Future Of Europe To The Europeans.

You Might Be A Cunning Linguist, But I Am A Master Debater.

The Problem Is The People Who Tend To Be The Best Organized Are The Most Radical And The Most Vicious.

You Go To War With The Army You Have, Not The Army You Might Want Or Wish To Have At A Later Time.

We Have An Orientation That Tends To Make Us Think That Everything Is Our Responsibility And That We Should Be Doing This. It Is The Iraqis' Country, 28 Million Of Them. They Are Perfectly Capable Of Running That Country.

Five Days Or Five Months, But It Certainly Isn't Going To Last Longer.

When Cutting Staff At The Pentagon, Don't Eliminate The Thin Layer That Assures Civilian Control.

Amidst All The Clutter, Beyond All The Obstacles, Aside From All The Static, Are The Goals Set. Put Your Head Down, Do The Best Job Possible, Let The Flak Pass, And Work Towards Those Goals.

Napoleon Was Asked, "who Do You Consider To Be The Greatest Generals?" He Responded Saying, "the Victors.

The Country Cannot Afford Amateur Hour In The White House.

I Suppose The Implication Of That Is The President And The Vice President And Myself And Colin Powell Just Fell Off A Turnip Truck To Take These Jobs.

There Is No Question But That When One Is Engaged Militarily That There Are Going To Be Unintended Loss Of Life.

Every President When He Is Elected Has To Live With The Pluses And Minuses His Predecessor Leaves, Which Includes Benefits As Well As Burdens.

Is It Likely That An Aircraft Carrier Or A Cruise Missile Is Going To Find A Person?

Aircraft Carriers

Think Ahead. Don't Let Day-to-day Operations Drive Out Planning.

Time Management

Remember Where You Came From.

Remember Where You Came

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Your Performance Depends On Your People. Select The Best, Train Them And Back Them. When Errors Occur, Give Sharper Guidance. If Errors Persist Or If The Fit Feels Wrong, Help Them Move On. The Country Cannot Afford Amateur Hour In The White House.

You're Thinking Of Europe As Germany And France. I Don't. I Think That's Old Europe.

Within A Week, Or A Month, Saddam Could Give His Wmd To Al-qaeda.

The Natural State Of Man Is To Want To Be Free. To Have Opportunities. To Have Choices.

And There Is, I Am Certain, Among The Iraqi People A Respect For The Care And The Precision That Went Into The Bombing Campaign.

We Never Believed That We'd Just Tumble Over Weapons Of Mass Destruction In That Country.

Mass Destruction

[on Osama Bin Laden] He Is Either Alive And Well Or Alive And Not Too Well Or Not Alive.

Osama Bin Laden

There's No Debate In The World As To Whether People Have Weapons Of Mass Destruction... We All Know That. A Trained Ape Knows That.

When There Happens To Be A Weapon Of Mass Destruction Suspect Site In An Area That We Occupy And If People Have Time, They'll Look At It.

Mass Destruction

I Don't Believe Anyone That I Know In The Administration Ever Said That Iraq Had Nuclear Weapons.

I Think We Ought To Have A New Rule: You Can Ask Two Questions, And Then We Can Pick The One We Want To Answer.

The Press Always Wants To Know How Many People Will Be Killed Or How Much It Will Cost, But The Answers To Those Questions Are Not Knowable.

General Boykin Has Requested That An Inspector General Review This Matter. And I Have Indicated That If That's His Request, I Think It's Appropriate.

Don't Automatically Obey Presidential Directives If You Disagree Or If You Suspect He Hasn't Considered Key Aspects Of The Issue.

Don't Divide The World Into "them" And "us."

You Will Launch Many Projects, But Have Time To Finish Only A Few. So Think, Plan, Develop, Launch And Tap Good People To Be Responsible. Give Them Authority And Hold Them Accountable. Trying To Do Too Much Yourself Creates A Bottleneck.

Plan Backwards As Well As Forward. Set Objectives And Trace Back To See How To Achieve Them. You May Find That No Path Can Get You There. Plan Forward To See Where Your Steps Will Take You, Which May Not Be Clear Or Intuitive.

An Institution That...would Permit Iraq, A Terrorist State That Refuses To Disarm, To Become Soon The Chair Of The United Nations Commission On Disarmament, And Which Recently Elected Libya - A Terrorist State - To Chair The United Nations Commission On Human Rights Of All Things, Seems Not To Be Even Struggling To Regain Credibility. That These Acts Of Irresponsibility Could Happen Now, At This Moment In History, Is Breathtaking.

There Are Things That We Know, And There Are Things That We Don't Know. Then There Are The Things That We Don't Even Know That We Don't Know. Those Are The Things That Are The Hardest.

I Am Not Going To Give You A Number For It Because It's Not My Business To Do Intelligent Work.

Strive To Make Proposed Solutions As Self-executing As Possible. As The Degree Of Discretion Increases, So Too Does Bureaucracy, Delay, And Expense.

If You Are Not Criticized, You May Not Be Doing Much.

If I Look At The Really Important Questions In [middle East] Region, I See Iran, Where There Is A Strong Desire For A Freer Society And Where People Are Repressed By A Small Group Of Ayatollahs. I See Syria, Where We Can See A Similar Desire Of The People To Be Free. These Two Countries Fund Hezbollah And Other Terrorist Organizations And Are Hurting Our Efforts In Afghanistan And Have Been Extremely Harmful In Iraq. Then I Also See Large, Important Countries Such As Egypt And Saudi Arabia.

I Tend Over The Years To Have Developed A Certain Hesitancy About Believing That Headlines Tell The Whole Story.

Find Ways To Decentralize. Move Decision Making Authority Down And Out. Encourage A More Entrepreneurial Approach.

You're Thinking Of Europe As Germany And France. I Don't. I Think That's Old Europe. If You Look At The Entire Nato Europe Today, The Center Of Gravity Is Shifting To The East. And There Are A Lot Of New Members. And If You Just Take The List Of All The Members Of Nato And All Of Those Who Have Been Invited In Recently -- What Is It? Twenty-six, Something Like That? -- You're Right. Germany Has Been A Problem, And France Has Been A Problem.

The Worst Thing You Can Do Is Allow A Coalition To Determine What Your Mission Is.

The United States, As All You Know, Did Not Come To Iraq For Oil, Not To Occupy. We Came Here Only To Help.

We'll Have To Deal With The Networks. One Of The Ways To Do That Is To Drain The Swamp They Live In. And That Means Dealing Not Only With The Terrorists, But Those Who Harbor Terrorists. This Will Take A Long, Sustained Effort. It Will Require The Support Of The American People As Well As Our Friends And Allies Around The World.

With The Press There Is No "off The Record.

Every Country Should Be Tired Of Going To War. War Is A Terrible Thing. If I Had Been In Congress, As Much As I Would Be Inclined Naturally To Be Supportive Of A President, Any President, I Would Have Voted No, Had The Issue Come To A Vote.

If You Are Working From Your Inbox, You Are Working On Other People’s Priorities.

The Reality Is That [barack] Obama Has Some 15 Countries In The Current Libya Coalition. President Bush Put Together Close To 50 Countries For The Afghan Coalition, Some 40 Countries For The Iraqi Coalition, More Than 90 Countries For The Proliferation Security Initiative And Over 90 Countries In The Global War On Terror.

A President Has To Provide Leadership To Gain Support.

I Think It's Very Useful For You Folks (reporters) To Try Your Damndest To Be Precise. And Don't Repeat Things That Are Inaccurate If You Can Possibly Avoid It. And When You See Things That Are Inaccurate, Knock Them Down -- Because There's A Bucket Of It Floating Around.

Don't 'over-control' Like A Novice Pilot. Stay Loose Enough From The Flow That You Can Observe It, Modify, And Improve It.

When Someone With A Rural Accent Says, "i Don't Know Much About Politics," Zip Up Your Pockets.

It Is Worth Reminding That Being President Is A Tough Job For Anybody, And Particularly So In The Information Age. There's Such A Glut Of Information. Anything A President Says Or Does Is Picked Up On The Internet Or The 24/7 News Media And Criticized Almost Instantly. Leaders Persuade Through Their Words And As Such Their Words Need To Be Measured And Well Chosen. It Is A Tough Job.

A Terrorist Can Attack Any Time, Any Place Using Any Technique And You Can't Defend Everywhere Against Every Technique At Every Moment.

When You Raise Issues With The President, Try To Come Away With Both That Decision And Also A Precedent. Pose Issues So As To Evoke Broader Policy Guidance. This Can Help To Answer A Range Of Similar Issues Likely To Arise Later.

Then There Are Three Or Four Countries That Have Said They Won't Do Anything. I Believe Libya, Cuba And Germany Are Ones That Have Indicated They Won't Help In Any Respect.

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