Conflict Assessment Quotes

Certainly, when I'd left Iraq back in 2008, I'd been proud of my service, but whether we'd been successful or not was still an open question.

I think the Mogadishu effect, if I had to define it, is we need to be more careful where we decide to commit US forces, and for what reason, and to make a clear judgment as to what we can and can't do and whether it's in our interests, or we could afford the resources that it would take to make the situation right.

My experience has been that military assessments on 'how goes the war' are consistently more optimistic than those made by the CIA and other agencies.

Not all violence is equally reprehensible; not all wars are equally unjust.

During my years in the Navy and in the White House, I was involved in assessing how a war with Iran would go. In summary: It would be ugly.

A Warrior knows when a battle is worth fighting.

He however knows when the enemy is stronger.

[In response to the question "Do you think that you underestimated the insurgency's strength?"] I think so. I guess if I look back on it now, I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence that we've encountered.

It is in time of peace that the value of life is fixed. The test of war reveals it.

I don't know how they judge fights sometimes.

One has to be willing to face the fact that what has transpired in Iraq is not exactly a very successful exercise.