Segei B. Ivanov Quotes

We need to ask who is the enemy, and the enemies are terrorists.

The insurgent can sow disorder anywhere, whereas the counterinsurgent—fighting on behalf of the government—has to maintain order everywhere.

Israel does not target civilians. It targets the terrorists.

Asymmetrical warfare is a euphemism for terrorism, just like collateral damage is a euphemism for killing innocent civilians.

If we accept the notion that terrorists will have immunity because as they fire on civilians they hide behind civilians, then this tactic will be legitimized and the terrorists will have their greatest victory.

I go to the airport and I've had everything taken away from me because of the terrorists. People haven't realized yet, though, that we are at war.

Twenty-first century war adds new risks: more and more often there are no front lines, no central command, no rules of engagement - only a chaotic collision of politics, power, faith and bloodlust. Victims are as likely to be civilians as soldiers.

Terrorism has become the systematic weapon of a war that knows no borders or seldom has a face.

This war on terrorism is going to continue for an indefinite period of time.

Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future.

The war against terrorism is one we must win.

Our country was hit on 9/11, 2001. Everybody in the world knows that. It hasn't been easy to deal with a different kind of enemy, but that is what we have, a different kind of enemy.

To a degree, the West is reaping what it sowed from a major strategic blunder in the aftermath of 9/11 - the entire concept of a war on technique, that is, terrorism. Defining the enemy when fighting a concept was impossible.

I never call it an insurgency. I call it terrorism.

You cannot make peace with terrorists. The normal dividing lines between war and peace do not apply.

You cannot avoid war in life, you cannot avoid the fear of terrorism, you cannot avoid those things now, they are a part of everyday demeanor.

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

With an insurgency, people are the prize. We can win every battle and still lose the war.

We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve.

An insurgency is the most difficult to fight of all military activities.

Terrorism is the enemy of all free people…

These are evil people and we are at war with them. They are going to try again.

In any conflict, the opposing side wants to kill each other, but survive, in order to savor the fruits of victory. But when you have people who are willing to die, they don't want to savor the victory themselves. That willingness to die creates a whole new dynamic. And that, the world has to come to terms with. We have to decide how to deal with that. That activity makes the threat of nuclear terrorism or bioterrorism much more severe, because people who are handling that are not afraid to die, because they think they are going to go to heaven. And that fearlessness about one's own self-preservation creates a totally different situation.

Terrorize your enemy!

There is nothing in our experience that can capture the fear that Israelis now live with every hour of every day, where allowing your children to go to a pizza parlor or a disco or just to play in the park can be a choice between life and death.