“Generally speaking, I don't have any problems anywhere, and most people do a fine job, ... But it should be every department. ... It's the weak link that makes everybody look bad.”
“Although the costs of war have grown... the American economy is exponentially larger than it was in the Vietnam War years. When it [the Iraq war] is compared to the overall size of the American economy, it's really a drop in the bucket, certainly by historical standards.”
“We're trying to get out in front of this because we think this is going to be one of the most critical problems facing water managers in the Western United States in the next couple of decades,”
“The assertion of administration infallibility just wasn't cutting it. This puts a different framework and a different perspective on how he wants people to think about the war, which was long overdue.”
“Iraq has been the crucible that has shown us how limited our cold-war alliances were. It took us 50 years to build NATO; the challenge we have now is that we've got to come up with something new.”
“As shaky as a policy of containment is, it is certainly preferable to confrontation, 'rollback,' or 'regime change' through military force. Containment is, in fact, regime change by tolerable means, and the solution to the problems of Iran and North Korea lie in an indirect approach.”
“When it comes down to the real brass tacks, it really reflects not so much hardcore analysis as the best political and military judgment of the secretary and the senior Pentagon folks. Searching for the ways in which the gearbox is connected to the engine isn't easy.”
