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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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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
Task
Civilian
Soldier
Casualties
Tasks
Civilians
Kill
Soldiers
Enemy
Reduce
Stills
Afghanistan
Still
Respond
Trying
Enemies
Hesitating

More quotes by David Petraeus

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I am not a politician, and I will never be, and I say that with absolute conviction.
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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.
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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.
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Don't forget Yemen, where there are also extremist elements, as we saw recently.
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I'm living the dream.
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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.
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Political progress will only take place if sufficient security exists.
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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.
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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.
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I will not ever run for political office, I can assure you of that.
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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.
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Iraq has gone from being on the brink to being on the mend, and it clearly has some big advantages.
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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.
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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.
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Every civilian's death diminishes us, collectively.
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.
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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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We cleared many of their towns and cities and rural areas of al-Qaida Iraq and other insurgents.
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I think no commander ever is going to come out and say, 'I'm confident that we can do this.
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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