Quote

If it had been our intention to take Iraq, if it had been our intention to destroy the country, if it had been our intention to overrun the country, we could have done it unopposed.

Norman Schwarzkopf

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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.
Unopposed
Overrun
Destroy
Intention
Iraq
Take
Country
Done

More quotes by Norman Schwarzkopf

Image
It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I'm not a politician. I'd make a lousy politician.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
A very great man once said you should love your enemies and that's not a bad piece of advice. We can love them but, by God, that doesn't mean we're not going to fight them.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
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
Image
I like to say I'm not a hero. I was lucky enough to lead a very successful war.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
I can't say enough about the two Marine divisions. If I use words like 'brilliant,' it would really be an under description of the absolutely superb job that they did in breaching the so-called 'impenetrable barrier.' It was a classic- absolutely classic- military breaching of a very very tough minefield, barbed wire, fire trenches-type barrier.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
I'd like to think I'm a caring human being.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
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
Image
I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44 individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of who wants to live, each of whom wants to do good.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I may have made my reputation as a general in the Army and I'm very proud of that. But I've always felt that I was more than one-dimensional.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
I do hunt, and I do fish, and I don't apologize to anybody for hunting and fishing.
Norman Schwarzkopf
Image
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