732 Quotes by Donald Rumsfeld

Commanders on the ground are the ones that are making the recommendations,

In 2003, at the time I made my "Old Europe" comment, the center of gravity in NATO and Europe had long since shifted to the East. With the former Warsaw Pact countries joining NATO, the alliance has a different mix today. Some people were sensitive about my comment because they thought it was a pejorative way of highlighting demographic realities. Apparently they felt it pointed a white light at a weakness in Europe - an aging population. Europe has come some distance since World War II in becoming Europe.

It has to have forces which are not paper forces,

There is no question there are people out looking,

No. That's someone else's business. Quagmire is - I don't do quagmires.

People have been moving together, talking, discussing things, ... You can always find someone who's going to try to be a dead-ender and say, 'If you don't do this, I won't do that.' But that's part of negotiation. We see that in the Congress and we see it in democratic systems all over the world.

Any changes to U.S. military posture in Northeast Asia will be the product of consultation with our key allies. Most importantly, they will result in an increased U.S. capability in the region,

We [the USA] do have a big nation's problem. We have the problem of a nation that's got two oceans, oceans on either side. People come from all across the globe and want to live here and they want to work here and they want to invest here. And that's a good thing. And they make up this country. But as a people, we [americans] are not highly skilled in languages. We're not highly skilled in knowledge of other cultures. And that's a problem.

I really believe that before its over, its not going be a cruise missile or a bomber that is going to be the determining factor, ... It's going to be a scrap of information from some person, in some country that's been repressed by a dictatorial regime that's been sponsoring a terrorist organization that's going to provide the information that's going to enable us to pull this network up by its roots and end it.