Petraeus Quotes

#1. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Centcom, is probably the most decorated officer of his generation.

David Ignatius

#2. I would say that [David] Petraeus and [Hillary] Clinton are being handled very difficultly by this administration over arguably exactly the same issue, which was the handling of classified information over a personal email.

Carly Fiorina

#3. There's no way we can get to the bottom of Benghazi without David Petraeus.

Trey Gowdy

#4. Lincoln discovered Generals Grant and Sherman. Roosevelt had Eisenhower and Bradley. I found David Petraeus and Ray Odierno.

George W. Bush

#5. Replacing General McChrystal with David Petraeus was a good first step, but more will be needed.

Jim Talent

#6. General David Petraeus was so successful at getting on covers of magazines, having journalists fall in love with him, that in fact he was able to use that power to go around the normal chain of command.

Michael Hastings

#7. The genius of David Petraeus has always been his masterful manipulation of the media.

Michael Hastings

#8. A few months into my research, General Petraeus, who was then leading Central Command, invited me to go for a run with him and his team along the Potomac River during one of his visits to Washington. I figured I could interview him while we ran.

Paula Broadwell

#9. I'm not in love with David Petraeus. But I think he does present a terrific role model.

Paula Broadwell

#10. General Petraeus is not a miracle worker. He can not be successful unless the president creates greater confidence within his own team about the decisions which the president has himself made.

Jim Talent

#11. I want you to know what I have told Australia's Parliament in Canberra - what I told General Petraeus in Kabul - what I told President Obama in the Oval Office this week. Australia will stand firm with our ally the United States.

Julia Gillard

#12. I suspect that with men like General Petraeus, where honor means something - losing your life is secondary to losing your honor.

Trey Gowdy

#13. The United States is considered a puritanical society by many Western nations. For example, they can't believe we hassle public servants like General David Petraeus because he had a mistress. In France, if a powerful man doesn't have a mistress, he's considered a wimp.

Bill O'Reilly

#14. In 2012 Roger Ailes, you know, desperately tried to get who into the race? Chris Christie, a somewhat moderate if tough talking from a purple state. They were very interested this David Petraeus, a figure who served in the Obama administration as CIA chief.

Donald Trump

#15. I introduced myself to then-Lieutenant General Petraeus and told him about my research interests; he gave me his card and offered to put me in touch with other researchers and service members working on the same issues.

Paula Broadwell

#16. Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. To deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think does a great disservice ... the progress has been immense.

John McCain

#17. There hasn't been a scandal this big at the C.I.A. since (CLASSIFIED) committed (CENSORED) to (REDACTED).

Stephen Colbert

#18. But clearly, this is what this is about. It's about pushing the security bubble out. It's about rooting out every last guy, so that there's not even somebody who can fire a single, solitary RPG round from some little qalat out here.

David Petraeus

#19. If you look at casualties, you find countries that had much higher loss rates per capita than the US. Denmark comes to mind, the United Kingdom, they have suffered heavy losses at various points, the Germans as well.

David Petraeus

#20. I will not ever run for political office. I can assure you.

David Petraeus

#21. Political progress will only take place if sufficient security exists.

David Petraeus

#22. I think no commander ever is going to come out and say, 'I'm confident that we can do this.'

David Petraeus

#23. As always, imagine how great the press corps would be if it devoted 1/1000th the energy to dissecting non-sex political wrongdoing

Glenn Greenwald

#24. Sometimes, the more you protect your force, the less secure you may be. Sometimes, the more force is used, the less effective it is.

Bob Woodward

#25. People often ask, why aren't you reading about what it is you're working on right now? And the truth is, you only get three pages a night before your eyelids close.

David Petraeus

#26. I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago - I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago - whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden.

David Petraeus

#27. I am not a politician, and I will never be, and I say that with absolute conviction.

David Petraeus

#28. The fact is that Iran doesn't want to see the Taliban come back any more than do most Afghan citizens.

David Petraeus

#29. This is actually true of the overall fight against al-Qaeda and trans-national extremists, that as you put pressure on them in one location, they'll seek safe haven sanctuaries in other areas. So you do have to continue to pursue them. But they have less capability.

David Petraeus

#30. When journalists are 'accused' of being 'advocates', that means: challenging and deviating from DC orthodoxies.

Glenn Greenwald

#31. This cannot be the United States being the air force for Shia militias, or a Shia on Sunni Arab fight.

David Petraeus

#32. Iran, as we have already discussed, has carried out very, very harmful activities inside Iraq. Funding, trainings, arming and, in some cases, even directing the activities of the special groups associated with the Jaish al-Mahdi and the Sadr Militia.

David Petraeus

#33. The job of the leader is to get the big ideas right.

David Petraeus

#34. The president and I sat down in the Oval Office, and he expressed very clearly that what he wants from me is my best professional military advice.

David Petraeus

#35. Well, the oil, the oil spot, if you will, is a, is a term in counterinsurgency literature that connotes a peaceful area, secure area. So what you're trying to do is to always extend that, to push that out.

David Petraeus

#36. The art of coalition command - whether it is here in Afghanistan, whether it was in Iraq or in Bosnia or in Haiti - is to take the resources you are provided with, understand what the strengths and weaknesses are and to employ them to the best overall effect.

David Petraeus

#37. If you don't want to have to kill or capture every bad guy in the country, you have to reintegrate those who are willing to be reconciled and become part of the solution instead of a continued part of the problem. And then, above all, the resources.

David Petraeus

#38. After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair.

David Petraeus