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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.

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
Assuming
Yesterday
Believe
Think
Thinking
Assume

More quotes by 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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We do know that the Iraqi regime has chemical and biological weapons. His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons - including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas. His regime has amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of biological weapons—including anthrax and botulism toxin, and possibly smallpox.
Donald Rumsfeld
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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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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.
Donald Rumsfeld
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If you try to please everybody, somebody's not going to like it.
Donald Rumsfeld
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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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Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet.
Donald Rumsfeld
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Oh, Lord. I didn't mean to say anything quotable.
Donald Rumsfeld
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The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. It's to change the behavior of the people that are being terrorized.
Donald Rumsfeld
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[on Osama bin Laden] He is either alive and well or alive and not too well or not alive.
Donald Rumsfeld
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Have a deputy and develop a successor. Don't be consumed by the job or you'll risk losing your balance. Keep your mooring lines to the outside world - family, friends, neighbors, people out of government, and people who may not agree with you.
Donald Rumsfeld
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The Cold War was a war, and we won it.
Donald Rumsfeld
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The worst mistake is to have the best ladder and the wrong wall.
Donald Rumsfeld
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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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It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.
Donald Rumsfeld
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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.
Donald Rumsfeld
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You can have a broad popular democracy movement and have it end being taken over by the most vicious people and the result is you don't end up with free political systems or free economic systems, you end up with a handful of radicals controlling the country.
Donald Rumsfeld
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Certainty without power can be interesting, even amusing. Certainty with power can be dangerous.
Donald Rumsfeld
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Reduce the layers of management. They put distance between the top of an organization and the customers.
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