David Petraeus Quotes About Afghanistan

• 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  

  4928

• 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

  Art   Iraq   Weakness  

  1150

• 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  

  4740

• 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  

  4455

• 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  

  3754

• 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  

  2578

• 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

  3101

• 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  

  3851

• President Obama has said that our aspirations should be realistic. We are not going to turn one of the poorest countries in the world, that was plunged into 30 years of war, into an advanced, industrialized, Western-style democracy. What we want to achieve is Afghanistan's capacity to secure and govern itself.

  →

  David Petraeus

  Country   War   Years  

  609

• 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

  Ideas   Iraq  

  4267

You May Also Like:

Barack Obama

Raymond T. Odierno

Dianne Feinstein

Eric Holder

Hillary Clinton

John O. Brennan

Michael Mullen

Robert M. Gates