Donald Rumsfeld War Quotations

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.

There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that's just a fact.

If it were a fact, it wouldn't be called intelligence.

Let me be clear. We have the forces, the capabilities and the intention to fully prosecute the global war on terror while responding to this unprecedented humanitarian crisis here at home,

I would guess there will be an end, ... Can I tell you for sure? No. ... This isn't World War I or World War II, that starts and then ends. Take Afghanistan. We've moved from major military activities to a point where at the present time, the vast majority of the country is in a stabilization security mode.

that will redefine how war is fought and won, and how the peace is kept.

The Cold War was a war, and we won it.

As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. Since the Iraq conflict began, the Army has been pressing ahead to produce the armor necessary at a rate that they believe -- it's a greatly expanded rate from what existed previously, but a rate that they believe is the rate that is all that can be accomplished at this moment.

We know where they are [Iraq's weapons of mass destruction]. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.

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

I'm glad you asked. It has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil.

Five days or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last longer.

The reality is that [Barack] Obama has some 15 countries in the current Libya coalition. President Bush put together close to 50 countries for the Afghan coalition, some 40 countries for the Iraqi coalition, more than 90 countries for the Proliferation Security Initiative and over 90 countries in the Global War on Terror.

An institution that...would permit Iraq, a terrorist state that refuses to disarm, to become soon the chair of the United Nations Commission on Disarmament, and which recently elected Libya - a terrorist state - to chair the United Nations Commission on Human Rights of all things, seems not to be even struggling to regain credibility. That these acts of irresponsibility could happen now, at this moment in history, is breathtaking.

The implication that there was something wrong with the war plan is amusing.

Every country should be tired of going to war. War is a terrible thing. If I had been in Congress, as much as I would be inclined naturally to be supportive of a president, any president, I would have voted no, had the issue come to a vote.

There is no question but that when one is engaged militarily that there are going to be unintended loss of life.

... something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question.

Most US presidents since World War II have led military actions without a declaration of war by Congress, though most, if not all, have properly consulted and sought support from Congress. That is the wise thing to do.

We are in the process of trying to liberate that country. And at the moment where the war ends and the coalition forces occupy the areas where those capabilities - chemical and biological weapons - are likely to be, to the extent they haven't been moved out of the country, it obviously is important to find them.

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.

This war is not about one man or one terrorist network or even one country, ... It is about a problem that infects this globe of ours with a number of terrorist networks and cells in a number of countries.

This country has gone in a short period from a haven for terrorists to a coalition ally in the war against terrorism, ... Freedom is clearly taking root in this country, and Afghanistan is on a path to become a model for freedom and moderation in the Muslim world.

It's an unfortunate fact of war that inevitably innocent civilians are killed. This has been true throughout the history of warfare and it remains true even in this age of advanced technology and precision-guided munitions,

It is true we don't have any ground forces such as (the amount in) World War II or the Gulf War, but nor have we ruled that out,

As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.