Quote

Don't be a bottleneck. If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it. Force responsibility down and out. Find problem areas, add structure and delegate. The pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.

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
Decision
Delegate
Responsibility
Delegates
Force
Resist
President
Reverse
Problem
Add
Find
Areas
Bottleneck
Matter
Structure
Bottlenecks
Pressure
Delegation

More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

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I'm glad you asked. It has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil.
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If there are people who yearn for the days when Saddam Hussein was in power, then I am not among them.
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I think it's very useful for you folks (reporters) to try your damndest to be precise. And don't repeat things that are inaccurate if you can possibly avoid it. And when you see things that are inaccurate, knock them down -- because there's a bucket of it floating around.
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I am not going to give you a number for it because it's not my business to do intelligent work.
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You might be a cunning linguist, but I am a master debater.
Donald Rumsfeld
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It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.
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Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.
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Look for what's missing. Many advisors can tell a President how to improve what's proposed or what's gone amiss. Few are able to see what isn't there.
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I tend over the years to have developed a certain hesitancy about believing that headlines tell the whole story.
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Don't divide the world into 'them' and 'us.' Avoid infatuation with or resentment of the press, the Congress, rivals, or opponents. Accept them as facts. They have their jobs and you have yours.
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Do you have any regrets? Of course I do.
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It is very difficult to spend federal (the taxpayers') dollars so that the intended result is achieved.
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We do have a saying in America: if you're in a hole, stop digging ..... erm, I'm not sure I should have said that.
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I don't know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons.
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Don't 'over-control' like a novice pilot. Stay loose enough from the flow that you can observe it, modify, and improve it.
Donald Rumsfeld
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The reality is that [Barack] Obama has some 15 countries in the current Libya coalition. President Bush put together close to 50 countries for the Afghan coalition, some 40 countries for the Iraqi coalition, more than 90 countries for the Proliferation Security Initiative and over 90 countries in the Global War on Terror.
Donald Rumsfeld
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The United States isn't going to do anything that it's not capable of doing. And if we do something, we'll be capable of doing it.
Donald Rumsfeld
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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.
Donald Rumsfeld
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In unanimity there may well be either cowardice or uncritical thinking.
Donald Rumsfeld
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And there is, I am certain, among the Iraqi people a respect for the care and the precision that went into the bombing campaign.
Donald Rumsfeld