Robert Foster Bennett Quotes

Why is Iraq so easy to harm and so hard to help?

Planning and preparations for Iraq after Saddam Hussein were wholly inadequate.

I think the suffering, violence and cruelty and Guantanamo and the rest is going to go on and on in Iraq.

The U.S. and Britain are incapable of controlling all of Iraq.

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

What we now have in Iraq is a defeat.

Iraq is not about oil.

I'm concerned about getting Iraq on its feet.

We have defeated Saddam Hussein and Iraq. The good news is Iraq is ours, and the bad news is Iraq is ours.

Unquestionably, the mission in Iraq has become more dangerous and difficult.

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

When I first arrived in Baghdad in January 2003, I thought I would soon rent a house and envisioned myself swimming in the Tigris to cool off after reporting in the city the caliphs called Madinit al-Salam, the City of Peace. A year later, I realized I wouldn't be taking any midnight dips - Madinat al-Salam no more.

Liberating Iraq from a legacy of violence and putting it on the path to peace and prosperity will take time.

The Gates of Hell have been opened in Iraq.

We have won the war. Now we have to win the peace, and it may be more difficult.

You’re going to have to occupy Iraq for years and years. The idea that democracy will suddenly blossom is something that I can’t share...Are Americans ready for this?

The problem with the War in Iraq is that every time we turn the corner, there is another corner.

Iraq is a terrible place. Some fool American is going to come out here and try to redesign it

The occupation of Iraq is completely self-perpetuating: The worse things get the more we are obliged to stay. And the longer we stay the worse things get.

The initial [Iraq] war was won in about 6 weeks, but the peace was lost soon thereafter.

We toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan without thinking of what is next.

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

I don't want to be overly dramatic, but Iraq and Syria are gone, and they aren't coming back, at least not as centralized states.

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

Many other countries in the region also have money and oil, but they haven't done much good with it - at least not enough to stop the Middle East's disastrous wars. Saudi Arabia at least has something else: stability, a scarce commodity in the region.