Colin Powell Quotes

It's not the job of the U.S. military to do nation-building or produce democratic utopias.

I don't think we would have had to be an occupying power if we had done the right thing in 1991.

The possibility of the United States winning the war and losing the peace is real and serious

I profoundly do not believe that the United States could make things better in Syria by being there. And we have an evidentiary record of what happens when we're there - nearly a decade in Iraq.

In time it will become clear to everyone that support for the policies of pre-emptive war and interventionist nation-building will have much greater significance than the removal of Saddam Hussein itself.

It is one thing to be against unilateralism and against nonhumanitarian interventionism - but it is quite another thing to be against humanitarian interventionism.

I believe very deeply in the proposition that what we did in Iraq was the right thing to do. It was hard to do. It took a long time. There were significant costs involved.

If there is one lesson for U.S. foreign policy from the past 10 years, it is surely that military intervention can seem simple but is in fact a complex affair with the potential for unintended consequences.

I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not.

The United States can't go in and impose order on chaos every place in the world.

We don't have the temperament to be an occupying power.

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

If American lives must end, and American treasure be spilled, in countries we barely know, that is the price that change has demanded of conviction and of our enduring covenant.

Preemption, democracy promoting and nation building have all been sullied by association by association with the War in Iraq.

The Great Seal was an early proclamation of 'humanitarian intervention,' to use the currently fashionable phrase.

America's foreign policy lacks the backbone to do the right thing in Afghanistan - which is leave.

Foreign policy is painstakingly difficult, and if there is to be anything gained from the experience in Libya, it is how not to conduct world affairs.

I'm not willing to commit American taxpayers' money anymore or American troops on the ground in another Middle Eastern country.

We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war.

We've made some mistakes in this country in times past - the Korean conflict proceeding that, some say proceeding the Persian Gulf War, where we were ambiguous as to what we would do.

The United States armed forces and coalition troops deserve recognition and support for their work to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and ensure the safety and security of the American people, civilians abroad, and the people of Iraq.

War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.

As proud and capable as it is, I think the idea that the military can build new countries is a tall order, and it's the sort of thing that we would only expect from a military that we have superresourced and thought of as supercapable.

You can't just drop the 82nd Airborne into Baghdad and it will all be over.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.