Background Image

...

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.

-Donald Rumsfeld

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

We Have An Orientation

Donald Rumsfeld

...

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.

Views: 88689

Topic

More From Donald Rumsfeld

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Time Management

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

I Don't Do Quagmires.

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.

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

I Can't Tell You If The Use Of Force In Iraq Today Will Last Five Days, Five Weeks Or Five Months, But It Won't Last Any Longer Than That.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

If You Develop Rules, Never Have More Than Ten.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

If In Doubt, Move Decisions Up To The President.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Way To Do Well Is To Do Well.

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.

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

Never Assume The Other Fellow Will Not Do Something You Wouldn't Do.

If There Are People Who Yearn For The Days When Saddam Hussein Was In Power, Then I Am Not Among Them.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Mass Destruction

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

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

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Mass Destruction

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?

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

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

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

With The Press There Is No "off The Record.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

America Is Not What's Wrong With The World.

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

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

Remember Where You Came From.

Remember Where You Came

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Look At Me! I'm Sweet And Lovable!

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

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

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

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

What Is Needed [to Combat Terrorism], In My View, Is Resolve, Not Retreat; Courage, Not Concession. Rather Than Thinking In Terms Of An Exit Strategy, Focus On A Strategy For Success.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

The Country Cannot Afford Amateur Hour In The White House.

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

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.

A President Has To Provide Leadership To Gain Support.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Mass Destruction

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Imagine, A September 11 With Weapons Of Mass Destruction. It's Not 3,000. It's Tens Of Thousands Of Innocent Men, Women And Children.

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

The Absence Of Evidence Is Not Necessarily The Evidence Of Absence

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

Aircraft Carriers

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

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

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.

Never Hire Anyone You Can’t Fire.

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

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

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

Osama Bin Laden

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Surround Yourself

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

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.

... 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Mass Destruction

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.

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

Trending Author

Category