Michael Hayden Quotes

ISIS filled the vacuum in Iraq and Syria created by a lack of effective governance.

I think Syria is in a particularly sensitive geopolitical position in terms of the politics of the Middle East.

ISIS controls a territory roughly the size of Maryland where 8 million people live. If it's attacked and toppled, who will fill the void?

There is little doubt that an unstable Syria will destabilize the whole Middle East.

Syria: It’s a messy civil war and we should not be involved in it.

We have a failed state in Syria.

The Sunni militants that make up ISIS are not the underlying problem in Syria and Iraq, but rather they are a symptom of other deeper problems.

Syria is attracting a lot more Westerners than the Iraq War ever did because it's the perfect Sunni jihad.

We see nation-states collapsing all around us: Libya, Syria, Iraq. We do not want another failed state in our neighborhood, which would rapidly turn into a stronghold for terrorists, as we have seen in Gaza. We do not want tunnels to suburbs of Tel Aviv or missiles pointed at Jerusalem.

Iraq is not about oil.

I'm proud of what I've done in Jordan, but the region itself is sitting on a time bomb.

The fate of Syria hangs in the balance, but it is entirely possible that the fall of the Assad regime will result in anarchy and cause Syria to turn into a second Afghanistan, a base for anti-Israel terrorism.

Iraq is in a civil war. There is no road in that country that is safe.

We've got a very difficult situation created by this embrace of the so-called Arab Spring. And that's not getting better. It's getting worse. The carnage for the people of Syria is horrific, and it's quite frankly too little, too late to reverse a lot of that.

The Middle East is more angry than ever. I'm afraid that the sort of deceit on the route to war was linked to the lack of preparation for afterwards and the chaos and suffering that continuous - so it won't go away will it?

I would not be surprised to see Syria break apart entirely.

Israel lost its war. Will Assad's enemies lose, too?

The situation in Iraq is dangerous but the regional situation is also very complicated and precarious.

There is no question that Iraq is one of the main problems. You'd have to be blind not to see what a magnet and generating force it's become for terrorist groups.

I think it is absolutely correct to solve the problem of terrorism in Iraq and Syria and Libya.

I assure you, it would be much more pleasant for me to be an ordinary voter in peaceful Chechnya than the president of a republic at war.

We know that there are various activities important to the insurgents in Iraq that are occurring in Syria.

What we now have in Iraq is a defeat.

Anybody who believes that we can democratize Iran, Iraq and Syria by military force is living in a fantasy world.

The Gates of Hell have been opened in Iraq.