Anthony Zinni Quotes

One of the lessons of Vietnam, which we failed to heed in the Iraq war and the Afghanistan surge, is that before you commit U.S. military forces to aid or assist, it is essential to know what you want them to achieve.

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility.

There are a growing number of conservatives and Republicans who, while they support the president and support the war in Iraq, wonder how many of these nation-building wars we're going to engage in and what the parameters of that are.

You want to win the wars you fight. That’s why you have to pick your wars carefully.

War is, in fact, an extension of politics, and in any war, military operations have to be conducted in such a way that they contribute to sustainable political outcomes consistent with vital interests that are at stake in that war.

In our excessive involvement in the affairs of other countries, we are not only living off our assets and denying our own people the proper enjoyment of their resources; we are also denying the world the example of a free society enjoying its freedom to the fullest.

We must have a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces - or at the very least a plan for it - something the administration has incredulously failed to do for over two years.

During the past few years I have led a sometimes hard battle for German foreign policy.

We have a model that we're following, and it's the Libya model.

I think if I had to do it over again, I'd do it the same way. I would just put more resources into getting the public diplomacy part much stronger than we were able to.

Had Rumsfeld said at any time 'get me a report on what's going on', he could have had it. You're right, it depends on choices that we make, which parts of the world we want to be in immediate contact with.

In foreign policy, the only thing worse than not doing something is doing something that fails or makes the situation worse.

I'm tired of the U.S. getting involved in every country's individual disputes.

It is like our foreign policy has attention deficit disorder.

The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don't just go away, they are only postponed to someone else's advantage

There are, however, cases in which, while our own interests are not greatly involved, strong appeal is made to our sympathies.... in extreme cases action may be justifiable and proper. What form the action shall take must depend upon the circumstances of the case; that is, upon the degree of the atrocity and upon our power to remedy it.

Perhaps we have acted too hastily. … it may have been unwise for us to send an army into Smyrna, but now that the army is there, it would be more unwise to withdraw it -- to do so would admit military failure and court political defeat.

He [General George Marshall] brought up the event that we were likely to be attacked perhaps (as soon as) next Monday, for the Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning, and the question was what we would do. The question was how we should maneuver them in to the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves. It was a difficult proposition.

Foreign policy matters cannot be intelligently decided in a large general meeting.

We don't have the temperament to be an occupying power.

We shall certainly not drift into war, but go to war if we do, because we intend it and have a purpose we mean to accomplish.

Ninety percent of foreign policy is reacting to whatever's happening out there.

Foreign policy is too important to be left up to foreign service officers.

Haute politique … to which we all must bend. I was as anxious to send you to the Congo as you were to go but the existence of the State was at stake.

The purpose of foreign policy is not to provide an outlet for our own sentiments of hope or indignation; it is to shape real events in a real world.