Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
I think no commander ever is going to come out and say, 'I'm confident that we can do this.
David Petraeus
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Commanders
Confident
Ever
Come
Going
Think
Thinking
Commander
More quotes by David Petraeus
The Islamic State fighters in Mosul are dead men walking and I think they increasingly know it.
David Petraeus
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
We obviously don't want to cause problems for the Afghan government, President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan people. In fact, we want them to support our efforts on their behalf and not see us as unwelcome occupiers.
David Petraeus
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
Iraq has gone from being on the brink to being on the mend, and it clearly has some big advantages.
David Petraeus
Political progress will only take place if sufficient security exists.
David Petraeus
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
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
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
Don't forget Yemen, where there are also extremist elements, as we saw recently.
David Petraeus
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
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
Fighting in cities is a totally different endeavor than obviously fighting out in the open.
David Petraeus
The fact is that Iran doesn't want to see the Taliban come back any more than do most Afghan citizens.
David Petraeus
Pakistan are very keen to carry out the operations themselves. And there's significant effort on the part of the US and other countries to provide assistance that can enable Pakistan to do just that.
David Petraeus
We cleared many of their towns and cities and rural areas of al-Qaida Iraq and other insurgents.
David Petraeus
I will not ever run for political office, I can assure you of that.
David Petraeus
If you look at casualties, you find countries that had much higher loss rates per capita than the US. Denmark comes to mind, the United Kingdom, they have suffered heavy losses at various points, the Germans as well.
David Petraeus
Syria has allowed its soil to be transited by foreign fighters who have come from a variety of source countries in the Gulf area and in the - in North African countries.There are some signs that that may have been reduced somewhat in the last couple of months. We need to watch that a bit and see if that is the case.
David Petraeus
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