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I didn't advocate invasion...I wasn't asked.
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
Invasion
Asked
Wasn
Didn
Advocate
More quotes by Donald Rumsfeld
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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Treat each federal dollar as if it was hard earned it was - by a taxpayer.
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Don't blame the boss. He has enough problems.
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If you develop rules, never have more than ten.
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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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Leave the President's family business to him. You will have plenty to do without trying to manage the First Family. They are likely to do fine without your help.
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They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.
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Don't do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of The Washington Post.
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When you raise issues with the President, try to come away with both that decision and also a precedent. Pose issues so as to evoke broader policy guidance. This can help to answer a range of similar issues likely to arise later.
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Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.
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Don't necessarily avoid sharp edges. Occasionally they are necessary to leadership.
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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.
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Success tends to go not to the person who is error-free, because he also tends to be risk-averse. Rather it goes to the person who recognizes that life is pretty much a percentage business. It isn't making mistakes that's critical it's correcting them and getting on with the principal task.
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Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.
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No. That's someone else's business. Quagmire is - I don't do quagmires.
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Inspectors do not have the duty or the ability to uncover terrible weapons hidden in a vast country. The responsibility of inspectors is simply to confirm evidence of voluntary and total disarmament. Saddam Hussein has the responsibility to provide that evidence, as directed, and in full
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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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[on Osama bin Laden] He is either alive and well or alive and not too well or not alive.
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Most US presidents since World War II have led military actions without a declaration of war by Congress, though most, if not all, have properly consulted and sought support from Congress. That is the wise thing to do.
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