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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.

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
Military
Ought
Control
Jobs
Reason
Civilian
Believe
Civilians
Really
Defence
Always
Secretary

More quotes by Leon Panetta

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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.
Leon Panetta
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Winning in Afghanistan is having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safe haven for Al Qaida or for a militant Taliban that welcomes Al Qaida. That's really the measure of success for the United States.
Leon Panetta
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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.
Leon Panetta
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I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened. We have not seen them able to conduct any kind of organized attack to regain any territory that they've lost. We've seen levels of violence going down.
Leon Panetta
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The Taliban is resilient.
Leon Panetta
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I suddenly realized at the CIA that I had to make life-and-death decisions about people.
Leon Panetta
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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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Well look, CIA is an agency that has to collect intelligence, do operations. We have to take risks and it's important that we take risks and that we know that we have the support of the government and we have the support of the American people in what we're doing.
Leon Panetta
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Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.
Leon Panetta
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In the zero-sum budget game, every dollar spent on this problem [illegal immigration] must be taken from somewhere else....No, we should not tolerate people immigrating illegally. But we need to treat this issue honestly and fairly.
Leon Panetta
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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.
Leon Panetta
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Well, the United States is a Pacific power. And we have always had a presence in the Pacific.
Leon Panetta
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I know that young people sometimes, caught up in the moment, make some very foolish decisions.
Leon Panetta
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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.
Leon Panetta
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These days, it takes only seconds - seconds - for a picture, a photo, to suddenly become an international headline.
Leon Panetta
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In this century, the 21st century, the U.S. recognizes our prosperity and our security depends even more on the Asia-Pacific region.
Leon Panetta
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You don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on.
Leon Panetta
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The United States will do whatever we have to do to protect our forces.
Leon Panetta
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Al Qaeda still remains a threat.
Leon Panetta
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The one thing that I remember from all of my intelligence briefings and my dealings with the Russians is that when you deal with the Russians, you have to deal with them from strength, not from weakness.
Leon Panetta