147 Quotes by Leon Panetta

There’s no question that the main location of Al Qaida is in tribal areas of Pakistan.

If we don’t do something to simplify the tax system, we’re going to end up with a national police force of internal revenue agents.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to borrow money from the Chinese to go give to another country for humanitarian aid. We ought to get the Chinese to take care of the people.

I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened. We have not seen them able to conduct any kind of organized attack to regain any territory that they’ve lost. We’ve seen levels of violence going down.

Throughout the 40 years I’ve been in Washington, I’ve always worked hard, particularly with regards to the budget issues.

My impression is that Putin feels that he can basically manipulate the West to do what he ultimately wants to achieve, and that he feels he’s gotten away with it so far, and that all he has to do is basically play the same game.

We are a nation at war. This is also a time for hard choices. It’s about ensuring that we are able to prevail in the conflicts in which we are now engaged. But it’s also about being able to be strong and disciplined in applying our nation’s limited resources to defending America.

If the Iraqis fail to implement the reforms, if they fail to get a handle on the violence, there’s nothing the United States can do, militarily or otherwise, that can solve those problems. They have to assume the primary responsibility to govern themselves.

Today, I think the attitude is that governing is not necessarily good politics, and the result is that it’s much more partisan and much more divided.