Barack Obama Quotes

Here's some news from Afghanistan. We're sending more troops to seal up the borders. Can we try that here? Three months, 12,000 pounds of bombs and billions and billions of dollars and the highest ranking enemy we've captured so far is an American.

If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy.

I think the President ought to bring everybody that's in American uniform back because we're headed for war.

I've not been to Afghanistan or - but what people are clearly pointing to is that it becomes more difficult to have it. You could do it. I think weather is a factor. The most important factor though is credibility and legitimacy. What I wanted earlier to say is what I think Senator [John] Kerry is pointing to, which is important, is the strategic review on whether to send more troops is only one piece of the puzzle, important piece.

I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation building.

Let me remind you all that the first task of American foreign policy is to reduce threats to the United States.

The doctrine of preemption has a long and distinguished history in the history of American foreign policy.

I used to have a little saying I used when people said, 'What are your priorities?' I'd give them a bit of government alphabet soup. I'd say 'CTCPROW: Counterterrorism, counterproliferation, rest of the world.'

Our safety requires a long-term military presence in the Middle East because that's where the plans to attack us are emanating.

Very near the heart of all foreign affairs is the relationship between policy and military power.

I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders. I believe the role of the military is to fight and win war and therefore prevent war from happening in the first place

We have to go in and win this war quickly, and then be prepared to help stabilize Iraq over an indefinite period, five to ten years, at a minimum, I believe, using a large fraction of American forces. This is a major undertaking that likely would require a total of 150,000 troops and could stay above 100,000 for several years

The Mutual Security Act was intended not to fight a war but to prevent a war.

Moscow believes that using force constitutes strategic defense.

Bob Gates has unusual standing in the debate about the Obama administration's foreign policy: He was defense secretary for both a hawkish President George W. Bush and a wary President Obama. He understood Bush's desire to project power and Obama's skepticism.

U.S. foreign aid must be used more strategically to achieve our national security goals.

I think there are a number of issues that we should be addressing. I have put forth a plan to defeat ISIS.

Toughest decision was early in my presidency when I ordered 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan. As somebody who had run to end a large troop presence overseas.

We need, from time to time, to use military force or all of the resources at our command in order to defend the nation and defend our friends. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I think there are probably some who actually believe, if we just go talk nice to these folks, everything is going to be OK. I don't think the world works that way.

I’ve been calling for more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my saying that.

In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it.

We need to focus on killing the bad guys, not getting stuck in Middle Eastern civil wars that don't keep America safe.

We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again. And we're not putting ground troops into Syria. We're going to defeat ISIS without committing American ground troops.

If they listen to the military people, we probably wouldn't be having an ISIS right now.

I did a week-long assessment in 2005 at (then Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld's request. Following our return, I told him that Afghanistan was going to be the longest campaign of what we then termed "the long war."