Howard Coble Quotes

I saw the president make the tough calls in the Situation Room - and today, our troops in Iraq have finally come home so America can do some nation building here at home. That was the change that we believed in. That was the change we fought for. That was the change President Obama delivered.

The president of the United States actually has to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

It's really necessary for the United States to continue to give strong leadership to the Middle East peace process, supported by European countries at the same time.

The military alone cannot end the conflict in Afghanistan. On that much nearly everyone can agree, offering a rare island of consensus among sides otherwise divided on the question of how and when America's longest-ever war should wind down.

I thought Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time and have been fighting to get the Administration to stop its failed policy and bring our troops home.

With that prudence and delicacy, therefore, of which I know you possessed, represent to Congress the indispensable necessity of rescinding the hasty and ill-advised declaration of independency. Recommend, and you have an undoubted right to recommend, an immediate cessation of hostilities. Let the controversy be taken up where that declaration left it, and where Lord Howe certainly expected to find it left. Let men of clear and impartial characters, in or out of Congress, liberal in their sentiments, heretofore independent in their fortunes,--and some such may be found in America,--be appointed to confer with his Majesty's Commissioners. Let them, if they please, propose some well-digested constitutional plan, to lay before them at the commencement of the negotiation. When they have gone thus far, I am confident the usual happy consequences will ensue; unanimity will immediately take place through the different provinces; thousands who are now ardently wishing and praying for such a measure, will step forth, and declare themselves the zealous advocates for constitutional liberty; and millions will bless the hero that left the field of war, to decide this most important; contest with the weapons of wisdom and humanity.

There is no area where experience matters more than in war and diplomacy.

I could have been very popular if I had launched a military attack on Iran but I chose patience.

War is too serious a matter to be entrusted to generals.

All terrorists, at the invitation of the Government, end up with drinks at the Dorchester.

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

There is never any military solution to any problem. Even when you have total victory you still have to go in and talk to people.

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

Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it.

I think the key anecdote in the book is when Colin [Powell] and I were discussing Iraq. Colin was upstairs in the Treaty Room, in the residence. And he talks about his concerns about the use of military in Iraq. And I said I felt the same concerns, but it might be that we have to use it. In which case, he said, "I support you."

Peace comes when you talk to the guy you most hate. And that's where the courage of a leader comes, because when you sit down with your enemy, you as a leader must already have very considerable confidence from your own constituency.

When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce.

Second, the resolution contains the blatantly false assertion that negotiating a timeline for bringing U.S. troops home with the Iraqi government undermines U.S. national security. Such a statement shows a misunderstanding of the enemy we face in Iraq.

War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.

In Turkey, we have lived almost everything that could be lived; war and torture... The war concept was consumed to its limits. But there is only one way we have not tried: negotiations, peace, and talking.

I'm optimistic because I'm pragmatic: Neither of the two sides, the military government nor the Islamic front, is capable of winning. If they continue to fight, they will both bleed to death.

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

The time is right for a political solution and the way is negotiations.

We should wage war not to win war, but to win peace.

There has not yet been a major ground offensive battle... There are, we know, negotiations going on between the opposition forces and the Taliban leadership for surrender.