Quote

Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal.

Donald Rumsfeld

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Donald Rumsfeld
Age: 88 †
Born: 1932
Born: July 9
Died: 2021
Died: June 29
Author
Businessperson
Diplomat
Former U.S. Secretary Of Defense
Military Officer
Politician
Chicago
Illinois
Donald Henry Rumsfeld
Bureaucracy
Politics
Presses
Goal
Press
Actually
Spent
Rather
Congress
Whether
Achieve
Often
Focus
Achieves
Money
Announced
Much
Effort

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There are things that we know, and there are things that we don't know. Then there are the things that we don't even know that we don't know. Those are the things that are the hardest.
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Secretary Powell and I agree on every single issue that has ever been before this administration except for those instances where Colin's still learning.
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Most of the 50 or so invitations you receive each week come from people inviting the President's Chief of Staff, not you. If you doubt that, ask your predecessor how many he received last week.
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In unanimity there may well be either cowardice or uncritical thinking.
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When cutting staff at the Pentagon, don't eliminate the thin layer that assures civilian control.
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Don't speak ill of your predecessors or successors. You didn't walk in their shoes.
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At 78 years old, I am not surprised at much anymore. Germany has taken divergent positions before, so has France, so has England, so has the US.
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Don't automatically obey Presidential directives if you disagree or if you suspect he hasn't considered key aspects of the issue.
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Control your time. If you're working off your in-box, you're working off the priorities of others. Be sure the staff is working on what you move to them from the President, or the President will be reacting, not leading.
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Preserve the President's options. He may need them.
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... something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question.
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Do you have any regrets? Of course I do.
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Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.
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A large number of people to begin crawling through those tunnels and caves looking for the bad folks.
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A few. . . critics are the only people I ever heard use the phrase 'imminent threat.' I didn't, the president didn't.
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One of your tasks is to separate the 'personal' from the 'substantive.' The two can become confused, especially if someone rubs the President wrong.
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We have an orientation that tends to make us think that everything is our responsibility and that we should be doing this. It is the Iraqis' country, 28 million of them. They are perfectly capable of running that country.
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Any country on the face of the Earth with an active intelligence program knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
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It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.
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Members of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are not there by accident. Each managed to get there for some reason. Learn what it was and you will know something important about them, about our country and about the American people.
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