23 Quotes by Lawrence DiRita

When we turn over two dozen forward-operating bases, that's two dozen that no longer require US military, ... So at a certain point you have to start to connect that to force levels.

You drop in the 82nd Airborne, and you have a bunch of guys on the ground waiting for their equipment to show up,

Decisions were made then that seemed appropriate at the time. And now the Iraqi government is making decisions that seem appropriate to this point.

They're trying different ways to place these things, they're trying to keep focused on US activities, ... We're always trying to learn off of them, they're always trying to learn off of us.

There is no unit that is directly reportable to the Secretary of Defense for clandestine operations as is described in the Washington Post article. ... Further, the department is not attempting to 'bend' statutes to fit desired activities, as is suggested in this article.

It's not known, to the best of my understanding.

It's still classified, ... along with a lot of the underlying planning.

There was already a significant flow of Guard troops. Changing the nature of the operation wasn't going to get people there any faster.

Generally speaking, as is true anywhere, if these kinds of lawsuits take place with American servicemen in the cross-hairs, you bet it's something we take seriously,