Chuck Hagel Quotations | Page 2

Nations, great nations have limitations. All nations have limitations. Even great powers have limitations.

Alliances and international organizations should be understood as opportunities for leadership and a means to expand our influence, not as constraints on our power.

Palestinians caged up like animals.

And this - this board was - was impanelled in 1951. And it's gone through ups and downs in how the secretaries have used it. But I have put a premium on that advisory board.

(The) chain of command has failed over the years, obviously, for a lot of reasons.

There has to be a reason and objective (to air strikes). What does it do to move the effort down the road for a political conversation?

This current government in Iraq has never fulfilled the commitments it made to form a unity government with the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shia. We have worked hard with them within the confines of our ability to do that but we can't dictate to them.

If America is to succeed in responding to these 21st Century challenges, our political system cannot continue to bog down in the mire of partisan gamesmanship.

We can't ... take that piece of reality in this business and set that aside and say, well, that doesn't count. And the Republicans on my side understand that the majority is in fact up for grabs next year. So there's not a decision made up here that doesn't have that factor coursing through that current.

Desperate men do desperate things when you take hope away. And that's where the Palestinians are today.