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Our task, your task... is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.

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
Weapons
Dots
Mass
Weapon
Happens
Connect
Wells
Smoking
Well
Task
Trying
Gun
Something
Tasks
People
Destruction

More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

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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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I think we ought to have a new rule: You can ask two questions, and then we can pick the one we want to answer.
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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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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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Let your family, staff, and friends know that you're still the same person, despite all the publicity and notoriety that accompanies your position.
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The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. It's to change the behavior of the people that are being terrorized.
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When cutting staff at the Pentagon, don't eliminate the thin layer that assures civilian control.
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Being Vice President is difficult. Don't make it tougher.
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After the German abstention at the UN, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle commented that Germany doesn't always have to stand on the side of its traditional allies. Berlin can look for new partners all over the world.
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When I served as US Ambassador to NATO in the 1970s, the center of gravity in Europe was France and Germany.
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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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No. That's someone else's business. Quagmire is - I don't do quagmires.
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Don't blame the boss. He has enough problems.
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Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.
Donald Rumsfeld
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A large number of people to begin crawling through those tunnels and caves looking for the bad folks.
Donald Rumsfeld
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I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think and I assume it's what I said.
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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.
Donald Rumsfeld
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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.
Donald Rumsfeld
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Don't speak ill of your predecessors or successors. You didn't walk in their shoes.
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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