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You can't help but... with 20/20 hindsight, go back and say, 'Look, had we done something different, we probably wouldn't be facing what we are facing today.'

Norman Schwarzkopf

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Norman Schwarzkopf
Age: 78 †
Born: 1934
Born: August 22
Died: 2012
Died: December 27
General
Military Officer
Trenton
New Jersey
H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.
H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.
Today
Back
Look
Hindsight
Looks
Facing
Done
Wouldn
Different
Probably
Something
Help
Helping

More quotes by Norman Schwarzkopf

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Had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like a dinosaur in the tar pit - we would still be there, and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of that occupation.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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Judge your enemy based upon capabilities, not intent, you have to look at the enemy and really almost make a worst case call every time.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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Well, unfortunately, I have always regretted the fact that I have a temper, but I also have, you know, have great love and respect for all of the people that have worked for me. I think like everything else, this is one of those things that has been blown out of proportion.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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I'm not a politician. I'd make a lousy politician.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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To be an effective leader, you have to have a manipulative streak - you have to figure out the people working for you and give each tasks that will take advantage of his strength.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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Fear will keep you alive in a war. Fear will keep you alive in business. There's nothing wrong with fear.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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I prided myself on being unflappable even in the most chaotic of circumstances.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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I admire men of character and I judge character not by how men deal with their superiors, but mostly how they deal with their subordinates. And that, to me, is where you find out what the character of a man is.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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From the time I was twelve years old until I retired last year at the age of fifty-seven, the Army was my life. I loved commanding soldiers and being around people who had made a serious commitment to serve their country.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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Had the United States and the United Kingdom gone on alone to capture Baghdad, under the provisions of the Geneva and Hague conventions we would have been considered occupying powers and therefore would have been responsible for all the costs of maintaining or restoring government, education and other services for the people of Iraq.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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But I would defy anyone to go back over the years and tell me anyone whose career I've ruined, anyone whom I've driven out of the service, anyone I've fired from a job.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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I do hunt, and I do fish, and I don't apologize to anybody for hunting and fishing.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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What people don't understand is this is something that we only have in America. There is no other country in the world where the ordinary citizen can go out and enjoy hunting and fishing. There's no other nation in the world where that happens. And it's very much a part of our heritage.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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First of all, Saddam did not win the war, even though he says he did, I mean, you know, that's a joke and everybody in the world knows it.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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In a recent interview, General Norman Schwartzkof was asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harboured and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America. His answer...I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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I like to say I'm not a hero. I was lucky enough to lead a very successful war.
Norman Schwarzkopf
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I don't consider myself dovish and I certainly don't consider myself hawkish. Maybe I would describe myself as owlishthat is wise enough to understand that you want to do everything possible to avoid war.
Norman Schwarzkopf