John Abizaid Quotations

But the truth of the matter is that there is there is an opportunity for them to participate in the economic and political future of the country and certainly in the security life of the country.

Every American soldier wants as much public support as he can possibly have. That's the soldiers on duty in Iraq, and that's me, as well. We fight better knowing that our people back home support us, back us, and understand what we're doing. It's hugely important.

So, these political activities will create friction in and of themselves, and in this environment of friction there'll be additional violence.

Well, the reports are correct that we're conducting very robust military operations on the Afghan side of the border in areas where we think al-Qaida is operating and Taliban remnants are.

Morale is good; troops are confident; leaders are capable.

The power to prevent violence is a power that no police force seems to have anywhere in the United States.

I don't believe Iran is a suicide state.

Nobody's more mindful of the sacrifices of our troops than those of us that command them.

Certainly our goal is to leave Iraq, but we can't leave Iraq with our forces until we know that the Iraqi security forces are capable and efficient enough to defend the sovereignty of the nation.

I think you also understand that one of the key things that's got to be done in Iraq is to build a mentality of understanding that the military needs to be subordinate to civilian control and respectful of its own people.

In other words, for every 10 enemy you kill you bring on 20 new recruits to their anti-coalition cause then essentially you are working against yourself.

And so I think that if the person has the funds, the network, and the equipment to do this, and also the experience, which is the key factor, then they can be quite deadly.

Being on the run, having to change the way that you do business, being unable to plan in a safe and secure environment, always looking over your shoulder, knowing that some day somebody's going to knock on your door and it's going to be your last.

Everybody needs to understand that I learned Arabic from the United States Army as a second language. I never spoke it at home.

You know as well as I do that counterinsurgency is a very nuanced type of military operation.

But my Arabic is pretty good. It's good enough to have conversations with people, to understand what they say, to understand what they're feeling.

I think what actually works best is local-level individual targeting of key leadership nodes.

You don't build a new power plant in the United States overnight. It takes years to build.

But all that having been said, you can't, in a city of a million people like Karbala, or 5 million like Baghdad, you can't be in all places at all times.

I think you will see a lot of strains develop in the political process that will result in violence everywhere in the country - but it's controllable, it's workable and it will lead to a much better future for these people.

Our forces will not be on the sidelines.

Clearly the Secretary of Defense, my boss, would like nothing better than to get Osama bin Laden and to get... to ensure the complete defeat of al-Qaida, because we know that al-Qaida is planning operations against the United States even as we speak here.

As far as Zarqawi is concerned, there is a network of extremists; it's not just Zarqawi.

But I am satisfied that the information that we have that this is the work of Zarqawi, is accurate.

The United States is the most powerful nation on Earth and it just can't walk away from the Middle East and central Asia and the Horn of Africa.

The people who were low-level Baathists need to know they have a part in the future of their country,

There are certainly considerations that we must make with regard to the level of the forces,

When we continue to pick at the wound and show the pictures over and over again it just creates the image - which is a false image - that this is the sort of stuff that's happening anew, and it's not,

We've spent too much time over the last couple of years talking about the Kurds and the Shia and the Sunnis. We've got to start talking about Iraqis,

We have a number of killed in the action in Nasiriya with the Marines -- I believe that number will remain less than 10 -- and a number of wounded,

We need to make it very clear to the Iranians, the same way we made it clear to the Soviet Union and China, that their first use of nuclear weapons would result in the devastation of their nation.

Militarily we are not in any danger of losing. We can't be defeated militarily based on what the enemy currently throws against us.

Now, people will say, 'Well, that's a very small number,' but when you understand that they're organized in cellular structure, that they have a brutal and determined cadre, that they know how to operate covertly, they have access to a lot of money and a lot of ammunition, you'll understand how dangerous they are,

I believe, with the addition of those additional Iraqi forces, with the gelling of the Iraqi chain of command, with good leadership by Prime Minister Allawi and his ministers, that the elections will be able to be held,

I believe that there are elements of extra-legal militias that are moving around doing some of this damage. There may be people with misguided loyalties in some of the security services, although less in the army than in the police.

If a legitimate government emerges that is broadly seen as being representative of Sunni, Shia and Kurdish interests, I think there is no reason to suppose that we can't bring force levels down in the spring,

If a legitimate government emerges in Iraq that is broadly seen as being representative of Sunni, Shia and Kurdish interests, I think there's no reason to suppose that we can't bring force levels down in the spring,

We must help others in the region help themselves by promoting self-reliant partners who are willing to face the enemy.

We must fight the terrorists together so that we can have a free and prosperous future for the Iraqi people,

It is a belief that they hold firmly, and we need to be just as firm that we can't be driven out.

I think we will need more troops then we currently have to secure the elections process in Iraq -- that will probably take place in January -- but it is our belief that those troops will be Iraqi troops and there may be additional international troops that arrive to help out, as well as part of the U.N. mission. So I don't see need for more American troops, but we can't discount it.

Some of them did very well and some of them did not. And in the south, a number of units, both in the police force and also in the ICDC did not stand up to the intimidators of the forces of Sadr's militia and that was a great disappointment to us,

is to build an Iraqi security capacity, all the way from the police level up to the national army level, that is militarily effective and loyal to the established civil government.

There are peaks and valleys that you go through, but overall the trend is good,

Well, the hardest thing to do, as we know from our own experience on 9/11 is protect everything all the time.

The real target is creating enough chaos in Iraq so that an extremist government can emerge there that would be friendly and conducive to the form of ideology that bin Laden, Zawahiri and Zarqawi believe in.

There are a lot of people in the Middle East who believe our weakness is our inability to stay the course, and they believe that two casualties today, two casualties tomorrow, four the next day, will eventually drive us out,

Why (anyone) would want to move against us in an overt manner that would cause us to use our air or naval power against them would be beyond me... We can generate more military power per square inch than anybody else on Earth, and everybody knows it... If you ever even contemplate our nuclear capability, it should give everybody the clear understanding that there is no power that can match the United States militarily,

Yet, we believe that that's probably the vigilance of Iraqi security forces and some of our proactive measures the night before probably saved lives.

We've got to get more senior Iraqis involved -- former military types -- involved in the Iraq security forces, ... In the next couple of days, you'll see a large number of senior officers being appointed to key positions in the Ministry of Defense and the Iraqi joint-staff and in Iraqi field commands.

There is always a possibility that things could deteriorate,

What I've asked for is essentially to have a strong mobile combat arms capability, ... That's probably about two brigades worth of combat power, if not more.

We certainly will take whatever military action we need to defend ourselves and to prevent the enemy from taking advantage there,

We have decided to make sure that we're cautious about how we're operating, and I have nothing to say further than that,

Boots per square inch is not the issue. You have to have solid intelligence in a conflict such as this, so you can get to the terrorists,

there's actually some indication, based on intelligence information that we have, that ammo is starting to be difficult for them to obtain in certain areas.

The scope of devastation is gigantic. The level of work which has to be done is very immense,

Tell them we are winning, ... You don't define success as the absence of hard losses. You define it - are you defeating the enemy?

Of course you've heard and seen in the press that Osama bin Laden is surrounded, we have him cornered and we know where he is, etc., etc. And of course, we don't know that,

So we're bringing in as much as we can. I know that NATO forces will be coming and certainly we're bringing more forces from the US, more helicopters.

And the answer is it is, but it's also a difficult road to go on. There are peaks and valleys that you go through, but overall, the trend is good. We're certainly confident. And the most important thing we're confident about is that the Iraqis want to do this. They want to take the fight. They will take the fight.

that this is not a rush to failure. It's a rush to victory.

The weather was bad. We don't know of any enemy action. The investigation continues,

The way we need to deal with them is to be offensive -- to find them and to attack them and also to ensure that we pay attention to what's moving along the Syrian, Jordanian and Saudi borders in particular,

It's a workable document from which good things can flow.

It's also natural in that part of the world to blame what people view as the... as the most important authority in the region, and that currently is the United States of America.

It makes sense that as NATO forces go in, and they're more in numbers, that we could drop some of the U.S. requirements somewhat,

The attacks against coalition forces have definitely gone down. Our attacks against the enemy have gone up. Attacks against civilians over time has gone up,

The international community needs to continue to help and you can certainly count on the United States to continue to help as well,

I know you have a lot of work ahead of you. I will continue to work with you all the way.

In terms of comparison from six months ago, in terms of foreign fighters, I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago, ... In terms of overall strength of the insurgency, I would say it is the same as it was.

In terms of overall strength of the insurgency, I would say it is the same as it was,

If there is anything that demonstrates to people the difference between what we stand for and what they stand for, it ought to be pretty apparent to them what it is,

Clearly, we understand that we've got an enemy that's in for the long term, al-Qaida and the associated groups that are aligned with it, ... We know that they've got a long-term strategy to fight, to gain ground, to gain influence. And it's very very clear that we've got to have the same sort of long term strategy to contest it. But the keystone to this strategy is helping the people in the region help themselves.

I don't know if I would make any comment about that other than to say that there is a lot of work against the insurgency,

I do think there is a general lack of understanding in the United States as to how it's going,

But as we move from this period of what many Iraqis regard as perceived occupation, we need to move towards one of partnership.

We've got to ensure that the quality and the capability of these forces will be good enough to withstand the challenges that the insurgents and the terrorists will present to the new Iraqi government.

But the key shift in focus will be from counter-insurgency operations to more and more cooperation with Iraqi security forces and to building Iraqi security capacity.

But clearly the fact that we've gone from zero Iraqi security forces on duty in May to up to 200,000 today is an enormous accomplishment, but it's not enough.

I believe we've... we've worked very hard with the Iraqis to build a better place ever since the fall of Saddam's government.

It's clear to me now that we've got to reach out to the Arab Sunni community in particular in an effort to cause some moderate political activity to take place so they join the future of Iraq.

Well, the hardest thing to do, as we know from our own experience on 9/11 is protect everything all the time.

And over time, I think, as Iraqi security capacity builds, you'll see American and coalition presence there decline.

Capturing any member of any terrorist cell or any insurgent cell that we may happen to come across is always very, very valuable, and the thing that interests me is that in most instances after a time people talk and they tell us what they know.

We'll try to include Iraqi officers in our staffs. We will do everything we can to empower Iraqi security forces to stand up on their own and operate where they can alone.

Undoubtedly, there are members of the former regime that are cooperating in some fashion and then there are extremists that are within Iraq that are cooperating with them.

Oh, the transition concerns me because as we move towards an important political event, it's clear to me that the terrorists and insurgents will move as hard as they can to disrupt this process.

The enemy that brought us 9/11 continues to represent one of the greatest dangers to this nation,

And clearly we know that the vast majority of the insurgents are from the Sunni Arab community.