Donald Rumsfeld Quotes

If you contemplate some enterprise against the enemy, the commissary must scrape together all the beer and brandy that can be found so that the army does not lack either …

… you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

And therefore those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him.

I have every confidence in the ultimate success of our joint cause; but success in modern war requires something more than courage and a willingness to die: it requires careful preparation.

General, you don't have a war plan! All you have is a kind of horrible spasm!

An army marches on its stomach.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

For the remote contingency by which a national army must be always judged, namely, the contingency of war with a first class power, the Army is practically unprepared.

It can’t be any other than madness to commence hostilities before we have established resources on a sure plan for certain and effectual military supplies. Men in that case will not be wanting.

An army is a diversion of energy from the productive life of a nation.

There is no shorter road to defeat than by entering a war with inadequate preparation.

I don't believe that any prime minister would send our troops into conflict without the assurance from the military that they had the equipment necessary for the operation.

Now that you're Secretary of War, what kind of an army do you think we ought to have?

Those who prepare for war get it.

There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war.

If we know that the enemy is open to attack, but are unaware that our own men are not in a condition to attack, we have gone only halfway towards victory.

The only hope of a short war is to prepare for a long one.

In order to assure an adequate national defense, it is necessary - and sufficient - to be in a position in case of war to conquer the command of the air.

It is not an army that we must train for war; it is a nation.

If we have a thousand bamboo spears, there's nothing to worry about a war with the Soviet Union.

It was the German schoolhouse which destroyed Napoleon III. France, since then, is making monster cannon and drilling soldiers still, but she is also building schoolhouses. As long as war is possible, anything that makes better soldiers people want.

We are a nation at war. This is also a time for hard choices. It's about ensuring that we are able to prevail in the conflicts in which we are now engaged. But it's also about being able to be strong and disciplined in applying our nation's limited resources to defending America.

An all-volunteer army is best suited to fight the new wars of the 21st century.