David Petraeus Quotes

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

Counter insurgency is something we can’t do, can’t do well, and shouldn’t be doing.

You can't talk about defeating insurgencies in the same way that you can with a conventional army.

A counter-insurgency is won by intelligence—not by bombardment.

You cannot deal with an industrial-strength extremist problem just with force of arms. You have to have that political component as well.

I just think it would be unrealistic to suggest we're going to eliminate every last domestic insurgent in Afghanistan. Certainly, the history of the country would indicate that's not a very realistic objective, and I think we have to have realistic objectives.

You can't succeed in beating the insurgents unless you can convince the people that they can be protected.

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

War is too serious a matter to be entrusted to generals.

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

Defeat the Taliban. Secure the population.

The Vietnamese have a secret weapon. It's their willingness to die beyond our willingness to kill. In effect, they've been saying, You can kill us, but you'll have to kill a lot of us; you may have to kill all of us. And, thank heaven, we are not yet ready to do that.

In the short run, using militias might be the quickest and easiest way to improve order on Iraq's streets and uproot the terrorists and guerrillas who routinely attack American troops and civilian targets.

The number of attacks on the American and allied forces is at the highest level since the insurgency began despite the increase of America combat operations and the introduction of some 40 new Iraq security forces and battalions.

Some of the generals are saying, 'We're making progress. We are clearing an area.' But you really don't defeat the Taliban by clearing an area. They move.

We are running out of time. We need a strategy to win in Iraq or an exit strategy to leave.

Al-Qa'ida does not follow a traditional command structure, wear uniforms, carry its arms openly, or mass its troops at the borders of the nations it attacks. Nonetheless, it possesses the demonstrated capability to strike with little notice and cause significant civilian or military casualties.

I don't think the war in Afghanistan was ruthlessly enough waged.

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

You know as well as I do that counterinsurgency is a very nuanced type of military operation.

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

Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.

There is no area where experience matters more than in war and diplomacy.

Diplomacy, when matched by force, can achieve our objectives.

When you’re fighting [private] militias, you have to quash them.