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Political progress will only take place if sufficient security exists.

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
Political
Place
Take
Sufficient
Exists
Progress
Security

More quotes by 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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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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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 task [in Afghanistan] is to reduce civilian casualties while still not hesitating to respond to enemies who are trying to kill our soldiers.
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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Don't forget Yemen, where there are also extremist elements, as we saw recently.
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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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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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
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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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After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair.
David Petraeus
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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
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The question is always how you get the number of troops needed. They do not have to be coalition forces. We also have to expand the training program for the Afghan National Army and the national police, in particular. and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already announced support for a significant increase in the Afghan army.
David Petraeus
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Fighting in cities is a totally different endeavor than obviously fighting out in the open.
David Petraeus
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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
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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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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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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 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