R. Lee Ermey Quotes

Well, I've been to Iraq twice now. I was in Baghdad in June and then north of Baghdad in November.

Don't forget we are in a state of war and no peace. But it's very dynamic and challenging compared to the rest of the Arab world.

The road ahead is not easy. Iraq is currently the center of the war on terror.

I would hope that we have in place the adequate resources to become an army of occupation because you’re going to walk into chaos

America has wearied of Middle East War.

... deployed on the sands of Saudi Arabia and facing possible extinction, are young men and women drawn, in the main, from the poorer families of our republic.

In Iraq, State Department civilians and U.S. soldiers have been operating in the same location in an active war zone. While the troops have been facing insurgents, the State Department civilians have been working to rebuild institutions and infrastructure. Blackwater's role in this war evolved from this unprecedented dynamic.

As I watch what is happening in the Middle East and the carnage that comes over our television screens every evening, I cannot help but ask myself, what is wrong with humankind that we cannot stop the killing?

The reality in Iraq is that we are creating new terrorists and severely damaging the public impression of the United States in the Muslim world.

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

I have spent the past ten years in just about every war zone there was.

We're not going to cure terrorism and spread peace and goodwill in the Middle East by killing innocent people, or I'm not even saying our bullets and bombs are killing them. The occupation that they don't have food. They don't have clean water. They don't have electricity. They don't have medicine. They don't have doctors.

I have been to Iraq on a number of occasions. I was with the first group that went in.

Nevertheless, I do know that we are part of a danger zone, we have military operations in Afghanistan and we're training the Iraqi police force. The terrorists also have us in their sights.

Geraldo has been in Lebanon. He has done some excellent reporting out of there, and of course, we now know by virtue of the president's speech on Tuesday night that the terrorist organizations that operate in that area are now on the list.

I'm not an expert on the Middle East or terrorism or the use of military force or politics. It's all I can do to know a little bit about how to help people raise their kids and what to do when they get sick. When a war happens, I just hope it gets over with quickly so that how we take care of children becomes more important again.

Let me be clear, Mr. President, mistakes have been made in Iraq. And this operation has been far from perfect as evidenced by the fact that Zarqawi and other terrorists continue to wreak havoc throughout Iraq.

The Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries.

If we want to build the Iraqis' confidence about our intentions in their country, if we want to stop adding fuel to the fire of insurgency and terrorism, we must clarify our intent.

In late 2009, I returned to Baghdad after a lengthy absence. I was living alone, in the Hamra Hotel, the twice bombed-out de facto international news bureau.

After all my years of playing soldiers, and then of reading History, I have almost a mania to be in the East, to see fighting, and to serve.

I think there were times when I first started out, when I was covering Iraq - I was basically living there in 2003 and 2004 - that car bombs and attacks became so the norm that it was weird for me to leave and realize that no one else actually cared about what was going on there.

To leave Afghanistan as a playground for terrorists and adventurers was simply not possible anymore.

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

There's no connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq.