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The consequence could be that we would have an escalation that would take place that would not only involve many lives, but I think it could consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret.

Leon Panetta

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Leon Panetta
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: June 28
Former Director Of The Central Intelligence Agency
Lawyer
Political Scientist
Politician
Monterey
California
Leon Edward Panetta
Take
Involve
Many
Consequence
Would
East
Think
Regret
Thinking
Conflict
Middle
Escalation
Lives
Consume
Place
Confrontation

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I think a quality that a national security adviser must have is the ability to set up procedures.
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Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.
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I'm not big on commissions.
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I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened.
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Throughout the 40 years I've been in Washington, I've always worked hard, particularly with regards to the budget issues.
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The United States will do whatever we have to do to protect our forces.
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Clearly, Russia has lied to the world about what's going on in Ukraine. They have clearly violated the cease-fire agreements.
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China is a major power in the Pacific and I think we are dealing with some common threats in that region: the whole issue of Korea and the stability of Korea, the whole issue of nuclear proliferation, the whole issue of providing free access to our ships that are operating in that area.
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Well, the United States is a Pacific power. And we have always had a presence in the Pacific.
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I suddenly realized at the CIA that I had to make life-and-death decisions about people.
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The most important thing we can do is prosecute the offenders, deal with those that have broken the law and committed this crime. And if we can do that then we can begin to deal with this issue and send a signal this is not a problem that we are going to ignore in the United States military.
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I think what both Republicans and Democrats need to do and the leaders on both sides is to recognize that if sequester takes place, it would be disastrous for our national defense and very frankly for a lot of very important domestic programs. They have a responsibility to come together, find the money necessary to de-trigger sequester.
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Rising sea levels, severe draughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
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You know, as director of the CIA, I got an awful lot of intelligence about all the horrible things that could go on across the world.
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I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt.
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The reason we've always had a civilian in that job [Secretary of Defence] is because we really believe that it is policymakers who ought to control the military and not have the military control the military.
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Frankly, my fundamental beliefs have not changed.
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Iran's continued drive to develop nuclear capabilities, including troubling enrichment activities and past work on weaponization documented by the IAEA, and its continued support to groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations make clear that the regime in Tehran is a very grave threat to all of us.
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It doesn't make a lot of sense for us to borrow money from the Chinese to go give to another country for humanitarian aid. We ought to get the Chinese to take care of the people.
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I don't usually comment on columnists' ideas of what I'm thinking. That's a dangerous game to get into.
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