How do you fight someone who doesn’t care if they get killed? You accommodate them.
Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.
As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that, he’s a great military man, I want you to know that.
You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.
Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion.
I do hunt, and I do fish, and I don’t apologize to anybody for hunting and fishing.
Leadership consists of character and strategy. If you can’t have both, opt for character.
A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers.
When placed in command, take charge.
I was lucky enough to lead a very successful war.
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.
Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character.
If we invade Iraq and the regime is very close to falling, I’m very, very concerned that the Iraqis will, in fact, use weapons of mass destruction.
With a chemical alarm, you’re going to build one that is oversensitive because you would rather the alarm go off and give you a false alarm than to err on the other side.
I like to say I’m not a hero.
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.
Fear will keep you alive in a war. Fear will keep you alive in business. There’s nothing wrong with fear.
I’m not a politician. I’d make a lousy politician.
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.
If Saddam were to be replaced tomorrow he would probably be replaced with someone who’s just as bad or worse than he is.