Latest David Petraeus Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• ISIS is on its way to defeat but terrorism threat persists.

  David Petraeus

  Isis, Way, Defeat

  Source: www.cnn.com

• Money can be a very important form of "ammunition," although we should never forget that when you're being shot at the most important ammunition is real ammunition.

  David Petraeus

  Real, Important, Never Forget

• The task [in Afghanistan] is to reduce civilian casualties while still not hesitating to respond to enemies who are trying to kill our soldiers.

  David Petraeus

  Soldier, Enemy, Trying

• We obviously don't want to cause problems for the Afghan government, President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan people. In fact, we want them to support our efforts on their behalf and not see us as unwelcome occupiers.

  David Petraeus

  Government, People, Effort

• I did a week-long assessment in 2005 at (then Defense Secretary Donald) Rumsfeld's request. Following our return, I told him that Afghanistan was going to be the longest campaign of what we then termed "the long war."

  David Petraeus

  War, Assessment, Long

• First and foremost is to not allow the reestablishment, if you will, of an extremist sanctuary that can export the kind of terror that ended up with terrorists taking down the World Trade Center and plowing into the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. That's the point: We started this war because the Sept. 11 attack came from this area. And we do not fight alone, but with some 40 allies who share that view.

  David Petraeus

  War, Fighting, Views

• Let's remember that the reason we are there is that we have vital interests in Afghanistan, hugely important national interests, as do the other countries involved.

  David Petraeus

  Country, Important, Remember

• The question is always how you get the number of troops needed. They do not have to be coalition forces. We also have to expand the training program for the Afghan National Army and the national police, in particular. and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already announced support for a significant increase in the Afghan army.

  David Petraeus

  Army, Numbers, Support

• US forces have been increased [in Afghanistan ] from some 21,000 to about 31,000 over the past two years and a number of coalition countries have also increased their forces, there still are not sufficient troops.

  David Petraeus

  Country, Past, Two

• Pakistan are very keen to carry out the operations themselves. And there's significant effort on the part of the US and other countries to provide assistance that can enable Pakistan to do just that.

  David Petraeus

  Country, Effort, Pakistan

• The first official statements of President Asif Ali Zardari's new government have been firm and robust. Pakistan is obviously a renewed democracy.

  David Petraeus

  Government, President, Democracy

• There [in Afghanistan] is also a growing insurgency threat from al-Qaida, the Taliban and other extremist elements, some of which comes from the tribal areas of Pakistan, as well as from the Northwest Frontier province and Baluchistan.

  David Petraeus

  Pakistan, Elements, Growing

• Afghanistan has other enormous challenges as well, including a political system that is still very much developing, although there has been some progress in the past several years.

  David Petraeus

  Past, Years, Political

• In Afghanistan you are not rebuilding, you are building. There is very limited infrastructure and extreme terrain, with deserts in the south and mountains so high in some areas that helicopters don't even fly well at a certain altitude because the air becomes so thin. The country has a serious problem of illiteracy, especially after so many years of war and Taliban rule.

  David Petraeus

  Country, War, Years

• Iraq has gone from being on the brink to being on the mend, and it clearly has some big advantages.

  David Petraeus

  Iraq, Gone, Advantage

• There are some ideas that will translate from Iraq to Afghanistan and there are many that will not. The first lesson of counterinsurgency, in fact, is that every situation is truly unique, has its own context, its own specific set of factors - and you have to understand that context in enormous detail to be able to craft a sound and comprehensive approach.

  David Petraeus

  Unique, Ideas, Iraq

• Progress in Iraq has always been about teams of people and teams of teams - and ultimately about young men and women, Iraqi as well as people from the coalition.

  David Petraeus

  Team, Men, Iraq

• We cleared many of their towns and cities and rural areas of al-Qaida Iraq and other insurgents.

  David Petraeus

  Iraq, Cities, Als

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• The Sunni Arabs began to realize that they had made a huge mistake by not voting in the election of 2005 and by not being part of the new Iraq. They had reasons for this: They were effected by the disestablishment of the military and by de-Baathification (the dismantling of Saddam Hussein's party) in winter 2007-2007. They increasingly recognized that their future lay in being part of the solution rather than a continuing part of the problem.

  David Petraeus

  Military, Mistake, Party

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• Al-Qaida in particular remains dangerous, and there [in Iraq] is some residual militia and special group presence. There are still between 20 and 30 attacks per day, still periodic car bombs and still loss of innocent civilians.

  David Petraeus

  Loss, Iraq, Car

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• I am neither a pessimist nor an optimist. I am a realist, and the reality in Iraq is that it has been very hard and it continues to be hard.

  David Petraeus

  Reality, Iraq, Realist

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and I have repeatedly sought to emphasize that the progress in Iraq is fragile and also, possibly, reversible.

  David Petraeus

  Iraq, Progress, Ambassadors

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• There has, indeed, been very substantial progress in Iraq over the past year - violence is down by 80 percent, civilian deaths by about the same, and so on.

  David Petraeus

  Past, Years, Iraq

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• Even the Interior Ministry in Riyadh was hit. Since then, the Saudis have employed a very intelligent and comprehensive approach to counter al-Qaida, including precise operations based on good intelligence, changes in their corrections facilities, superb strategic communications programs and a host of other initiatives - all of which, together, have helped Saudi Arabia achieve impressive results in their fight against extremists.

  David Petraeus

  Communication, Fighting, Intelligent

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• Over the last few years they have done a superb job in their fight against al-Qaida. As you may recall, our embassy in Jedda (in Saudi Arabia) was overrun some four years ago and a number of foreign workers went home because of violence against them.

  David Petraeus

  Jobs, Home, Fighting

  Source: www.spiegel.de