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I think no commander ever is going to come out and say, 'I'm confident that we can do this.

David Petraeus

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David Petraeus
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: November 7
Former Director Of The Central Intelligence Agency
Military Officer
Politician
New York City
New York
David Howell Petraeus
Thinking
Commander
Commanders
Confident
Ever
Come
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Think

More quotes by David Petraeus

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The fact is that Iran doesn't want to see the Taliban come back any more than do most Afghan citizens.
David Petraeus
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Don't forget Yemen, where there are also extremist elements, as we saw recently.
David Petraeus
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After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair.
David Petraeus
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I am not a politician, and I will never be, and I say that with absolute conviction.
David Petraeus
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I did a week-long assessment in 2005 at (then Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld's request. Following our return, I told him that Afghanistan was going to be the longest campaign of what we then termed the long war.
David Petraeus
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Every civilian's death diminishes us, collectively.
David Petraeus
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Al-Qaida in particular remains dangerous, and there [in Iraq] is some residual militia and special group presence. There are still between 20 and 30 attacks per day, still periodic car bombs and still loss of innocent civilians.
David Petraeus
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The Islamic State fighters in Mosul are dead men walking and I think they increasingly know it.
David Petraeus
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Afghanistan has other enormous challenges as well, including a political system that is still very much developing, although there has been some progress in the past several years.
David Petraeus
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The first official statements of President Asif Ali Zardari's new government have been firm and robust. Pakistan is obviously a renewed democracy.
David Petraeus
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We cleared many of their towns and cities and rural areas of al-Qaida Iraq and other insurgents.
David Petraeus
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There has, indeed, been very substantial progress in Iraq over the past year - violence is down by 80 percent, civilian deaths by about the same, and so on.
David Petraeus
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US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and I have repeatedly sought to emphasize that the progress in Iraq is fragile and also, possibly, reversible.
David Petraeus
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Progress in Iraq has always been about teams of people and teams of teams - and ultimately about young men and women, Iraqi as well as people from the coalition.
David Petraeus
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The art of coalition command - whether it is here in Afghanistan, whether it was in Iraq or in Bosnia or in Haiti - is to take the resources you are provided with, understand what the strengths and weaknesses are and to employ them to the best overall effect.
David Petraeus
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Iraq has gone from being on the brink to being on the mend, and it clearly has some big advantages.
David Petraeus
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There [in Afghanistan] is also a growing insurgency threat from al-Qaida, the Taliban and other extremist elements, some of which comes from the tribal areas of Pakistan, as well as from the Northwest Frontier province and Baluchistan.
David Petraeus
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Reconciliation is what takes place, of course, at higher levels. President Karzai has been very clear about the red lines for reconciliation, accept the constitution, lay down their weapons, cut their ties with al Qaeda and essentially become productive or at least participating members of society in that regard.
David Petraeus
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Let's remember that the reason we are there is that we have vital interests in Afghanistan, hugely important national interests, as do the other countries involved.
David Petraeus
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I will not ever run for political office, I can assure you of that.
David Petraeus