Words matter. These are the best Jack Keane Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
I watched the Bush administration overreact to the Clinton administration, who believed they did too much nation building, sustaining other countries, and that’s why we never put the commitment on Afghanistan and Iraq that should have been in there under their policy leadership.
The success of ISIS is largely tied to the safe haven it has in Syria.
The Pentagon is a series of wedges. So you have – the outer wedge has windows on the outside, and then inside of that, it has windows with an alleyway; then there’s another wedge with windows outside, windows inside. And we call them the E Ring, the D Ring, the C Ring.
Very unusual in an insurgency to have absolutely no political agenda other than to return to power. Most insurgents have a political side to them.
Since 1989, we have been deploying on an average of every 18 months.
I have a close association with Gen. Petraeus… What you get in Dave Petraeus is a very unique officer, a combination of intelligence, extraordinary depth of knowledge and understanding.
Putin has put Russia on a path to be a world power with global influence.
Sometimes, our expectations of being all-knowing is somewhat unrealistic. At the end of the day, there are people out there who mean harm to us, are thinking about doing harm to us and motivated to do it, and we don’t know what that is.
In the early 2009, a campaign plan developed by Petraeus and General McChrystal to defeat the Taliban, they required a minimum force of 40,000. President Obama rejected that recommendation and provided 25 percent less. He also decided he would pull the force out in 12 to 15 months.
One of the banners I would put up in front of any American president and new administration is ‘Do not overreact to your predecessors’ policies.’
What did we want out of Iraq? We wanted a country that was stable and secure, that elected its own government, that was not going to be a threat to its neighbors and also was capable of protecting and defending itself. That was our objective in Iraq.
The only people that have ever fought ISIS in Syria is not the regime; it is the Free Syrian Army.
Aircraft are always going to be something that terrorists are interested in because you bring down an airliner, you have drawn the world’s attention.
If you took ISIS’ oil, that would not stop them. It’s not their only source of revenue. It would be a setback, but it would not stop them.
We must take all that territory away from ISIS.
If Assad continues to conduct strikes against the Free Syrian Army at will, it would be very difficult for them to have any success against ISIS.
Historically, aggression unanswered has led to more aggression.
The thing I have in common with Donald Trump is, about a dozen years ago, we got a ‘Man of the Year’ award in New York City, the Hotel Plaza, from the USO.
I believe, for a long time, protracted wars test the will of any democracy, to be sure, and people will underwrite a protracted war if they see some progress. But if they don’t see progress, and it appears to be futile and useless, then that political support begins to evaporate rather quickly.
ISIS is at war with America, but America is not at war with ISIS – not the president, nor the Congress, and certainly not the American people.
Only four secretaries of defense served longer than Robert M. Gates. Many others were as dedicated; many sacrificed a great deal. Alone among them all, however, Mr. Gates had the task of turning around two wars that the U.S. was losing.
ISIS is on the offense, with the ability to attack at will, anyplace, anytime.
While conducting a conventional war in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has staged terrorist attacks on a global scale against the people from the countries who are fighting ISIS.
In 2005 in Iraq, the constitution was written. A new government was elected. That government was trying to take office in 2006.
United States and our allied partners need to wake up. ISIS is at war with us and civilization.
The issue with Syria, I think for many of us, has always been about Iran. This is an anchor point for them in terms of regional domination. It means a lot to them. They are all in here.
In 2011, General Alston, four-star commander in Iraq, recommended to the President, a force level of over 20,000. The President rejected it and pulled out all the forces with what is now known as a disastrous consequence in Syria.
‘Duty’ is a refreshingly honest memoir and a moving one. Mr. Gates scrupulously identifies his flaws and mistakes: He waited too long, for example, for the military bureaucracy to fix critical supply issues like the drones needed in Iraq and took three years to replace a dysfunctional command structure in Afghanistan.
Most people who aspire to be president don’t have a foreign policy and national security background. The exception was certainly Hillary Clinton.
Economically, ISIS is making money every day on the black market with their oil fields. But they are also putting money in banks. We know where those banks are. We should go after the banks and the facilitators using them.
Yes, we need a force to continue to train, assist, advise the Iraqi army.
Air power will not defeat ISIS. It has not been able to deny ISIS freedom of maneuver and the ability to attack at will.
My involvement with Guantanamo began as vice chief of staff.
I remember speaking to a sheik who came back into the political system in late 2008, laid down his arms. His troops became part of the Sons of Iraq, the so-called Sunni Awakening.
This radical Islam is a religious-based ideology. And you actually have to, when you deal with the ideology, you have to attack it on that basis.
