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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.

-Donald Rumsfeld

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They Will Do More

Donald Rumsfeld

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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.

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

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

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

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

We Know Where They Are [iraq's Weapons Of Mass Destruction]. They're In The Area Around Tikrit And Baghdad And East, West, South And North Somewhat.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

With The Press There Is No "off The Record.

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

Mass Destruction

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

I Would Not Say That The Future Is Necessarily Less Predictable Than The Past. I Think The Past Was Not Predictable When It Started.

... 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.

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The Purpose Of Terrorism Is To Terrorize. It's To Change The Behavior Of The People That Are Being Terrorized.

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Osama Bin Laden

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Congratulations

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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We Know Where They Are. They Are In The Area Around Tikrit And Baghdad.

Mass Destruction

Reduce The Number Of Lawyers. They Are Like Beavers - They Get In The Middle Of The Stream And Dam It Up.

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

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If You Develop Rules, Never Have More Than Ten.

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

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

Mass Destruction

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Remember Where You Came From.

Remember Where You Came

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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

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

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

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Mass Destruction

Certainty Without Power Can Be Interesting, Even Amusing. Certainty With Power Can Be Dangerous.

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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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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?

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

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

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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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

No Terror State Poses A Greater Or More Immediate Threat To The Security Of Our People And The Stability Of The World Than The Regime Of Saddam Hussein In Iraq.

I'm Glad You Asked. It Has Nothing To Do With Oil, Literally Nothing To Do With Oil.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

I Cannot Give Any Assurances. I'm Not In That Business. I Haven't Been, And I Don't Intend To Get Into It. People Who Try To Make Predictions About Things Or Assurances Often Find They're Wrong.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

After He Saw What Happened To Saddam Hussein, He (gadhafi) Did Not Want To Be Saddam Hussein. He Gave Up His Nuclear Program.

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

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.

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.

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

The Coalition Did Not Act In Iraq Because We Had Discovered Dramatic New Evidence Of Iraq's Pursuit. We Acted Because We Saw The Evidence In A Dramatic New Light - Through The Prism Of Our Experience On 9/11.

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.

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.

Never Hire Anyone You Can’t Fire.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The Most Underestimated Risk For A Politician Is Overexposure.

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.

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

Arguments Of Convenience Lack Integrity And Inevitably Trip You Up.

I Don't Do Quagmires.

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

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

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

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

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.

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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.

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

A Large Number Of People To Begin Crawling Through Those Tunnels And Caves Looking For The Bad Folks.

Work Continuously To Trim The White House Staff From Your First Day To Your Last. All The Pressures Are To The Contrary.

Test Ideas In The Marketplace. You Learn From Hearing A Range Of Perspectives. Consultation Helps Engender The Support Decisions Need To Be Successfully Implemented.

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