Dana Perino Quotes

I am someone who facilitates the President’s ability to make tough decisions.

As Secretary of Defense I have to be cautious and prudent.

Military decisions are much more difficult and more often wrong than civilian decisions.

When you are Commander in Chief, you should keep all your options on the table.

General Petraeus is not a miracle worker. He can not be successful unless the president creates greater confidence within his own team about the decisions which the president has himself made.

Success in past U.S. conflicts has not been strictly the result of military leadership but rather the judgment of the president in choosing generals and setting broad strategy.

My job is to give the president and secretary of defense military advice before they know they need it.

War is often about making the least-worst decision. The same could be said about politics. But the stakes are higher in war, when the commander-in-chief is called upon to defend the nation.

One mediocre general is better than two good ones.

When you're President you have to make a lot of tough decisions. You have to keep lining them up and making them.

No American President should ever take any option off the table.

Whenever we get involved in a war, the White House seems to have 3 priorities: We cannot appear to be losing; we must appear to be winning; we must look like we know what we are doing.

If there is going to be a war – and no one can say that there is not – we must keep him fresh to be our war Prime Minister

The President has full responsibility, which cannot be shared, for military decisions in a world in which the difference between safety and cataclysm can be a matter of hours or even minutes.

There's so many things, when you're in national security, that you do that aren't perfect, but you do them because you think you're doing what the country needs to be safe.

If I had undertaken the practical direction of military operations, and anything went amiss, I feared that my conscience would torture me, as guilty of the fall of my country, as I had not been familiar with military tactics.

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

CEOs make hard decisions; sometimes, the least worst is the right one.

Replacing General McChrystal with David Petraeus was a good first step, but more will be needed.

A commander in chief with military experience might be able to prod a conservative military into thinking more imaginatively.

Mistakes, after all, are endemic to foreign and military policy given the unpredictability of events and the difficulty of securing reliable information in a place like Iraq.

I used to have a little saying I used when people said, 'What are your priorities?' I'd give them a bit of government alphabet soup. I'd say 'CTCPROW: Counterterrorism, counterproliferation, rest of the world.'

George Bush has shown great skill at disguising an incredibly weak foreign policy.

As not infrequently happens in the affairs of war, it is easier to point out mistakes after they are committed, than to see and avoid them amid the difficulties and dangers by which the military commander is at the moment surrounded.

And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader.