Chuck Hagel Quotes

I don’t think that we have ever had a coherent strategy on Iraq.

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility.

The U.S. military cannot fight Iraq's war for them.

Our safety at home and the cause of freedom abroad is largely contingent upon our success in Iraq.

I'm just very wary that once you start military operations in any country, it's very difficult to predict what the outcome is.

I believe the military should be wary of diplomacy until war is declared; then the State Department should keep its nose out and let the military do whatever is necessary to win.

I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that.

Victory is the most important aspect in Iraq, because victory in Iraq will help us have victory in the War on Terror.

Our opponent and many in Congress criticized our decision to end the Iraq war.

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.

One of the lessons of Vietnam, which we failed to heed in the Iraq war and the Afghanistan surge, is that before you commit U.S. military forces to aid or assist, it is essential to know what you want them to achieve.

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.

Tonight, I concurred with President Bush when he stated that the decisions on future involvement of U.S. troops in Iraq should be left to the Pentagon and not politicians in Washington.

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

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

I support the current operational position and tactics in Iraq, but we’re in a bad place, we didn’t need to be there, and we shouldn’t do it again.

Someone should tell the president that U.S. forces would need to be in Iraq for two to five years, and they will not have an easy time there.

I will not be the first American President who lost a war!

America has wearied of Middle East War.

I don't think that anyone in the pages of 'War on Peace' is arguing that diplomacy is the replacement for military power. But, correctly, the job of the military is to think tactically.

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.

Working as a Foreign Office lawyer in 2003, I was less worried by the quibbling over U.N. resolutions on Iraq than the coalition's capacity to effect positive change.

I think that the decision to go to war in Iraq was a mistake.

We need willingness to consider different mission in Iraq.

Governor Dean has no policy on Iraq evidently, except 'no.' 'No' is not a policy.