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" I am not a politician, and I will never be, and I say that with absolute conviction. "
David Petraeus
Will
Say
Politician
Related Quotes:
" The foremost threat to Iraq's long-term stability and the broader regional equilibrium is not the Islamic State, it is Shiite militias, many backed by - and some guided by - Iran. "
David Petraeus
Long-Term
Some
Threat
" I do talk to individuals still in the business of tracking individuals in the homeland and abroad. A lot of them have felt that they were hanging on by their fingernails a bit in terms of tracking all the potential threats out there. "
David Petraeus
Hanging
Potential
Talk
" Needless to say, it was the greatest of privileges to serve with the selfless men and women - Iraqi and American and those of our coalition partners, civilian as well as military - who did the hard, dangerous work of the surge. There seldom was an easy period; each day was tough. "
David Petraeus
Work
Women
Tough
" I don't comment directly on actions or statements of candidates. "
David Petraeus
Statements
Actions
Candidates
" Beyond Iraq, I am also profoundly worried about the continuing meltdown of Syria, which is a geopolitical Chernobyl. Until it is capped, it is going to continue to spew radioactive instability and extremist ideology over the entire region. "
David Petraeus
Going
Beyond
I Am
" The idea is to go to bed every night with fewer enemies than you had in the morning. "
David Petraeus
Morning
Enemies
Bed
" 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
You
Mind
Find
" Needless to say, innumerable challenges exist in all areas of governance, and much more needs to be done to help the Afghan government assume full responsibility for addressing the concerns of ordinary Afghan citizens. "
David Petraeus
Challenges
Responsibility
Government
" The Pakistani Army, the Frontier Corps, the Frontier Scouts and Police have carried out quite impressive counter-insurgency operations. "
David Petraeus
Impressive
Police
Operations
" The fact is that Iran doesn't want to see the Taliban come back any more than do most Afghan citizens. "
David Petraeus
Back
Want
Fact
" Mubarak would meet with me when I was at Central Command. He would lean and put his hand on my knee, as if a father figure, and say, 'General, don't ever forget the Arab Street. Listen to the Arab Street.' I'd like to go to him now and say, 'Mr. President, what about that Arab Street, what's that all about?' "
David Petraeus
Me
Father
Street
" Iraq's Sunnis need to be brought back into the fold. They need to feel as though they have a stake in the success of Iraq rather than a stake in its failure. "
David Petraeus
Success
Back
Failure
" I will not ever run for political office. I can assure you. "
David Petraeus
Office
You
Will
" The Afghan people do not take kindly to conquerors. "
David Petraeus
Take
Kindly
Afghan
" We can put a stake through the heart of Islamic State as an army. We can put a stake through the heart of its leaders. You can take away its territory. But you can't put a stake through the heart of the ideas, of the ideology, that sadly, tragically, still has some attraction for some small numbers in the Islamic faith. "
David Petraeus
Ideas
Army
Faith
" I'm heartened that, for the first time, we're seeing some of the Internet Service Providers and the social media sites taking action against the Islamic State. That's the kind of initiative that can very, very much augment on an industrial scale what the government is trying to do. "
David Petraeus
Time
Government
Service
" In the 101st Airborne Division headquarters in Mosul, we had a sign on the wall. It was a question that we would ask ourselves before every new operation or policy initiative. It asked: Will this policy or operation take more bad guys off the streets than it creates by its conduct? "
David Petraeus
Question
Bad
Division
" There is nothing I can do to undo what I did. I can only say again how sorry I am to those I let down and then strive to go forward with a greater sense of humility and purpose, and with gratitude to those who stood with me during a very difficult chapter in my life. "
David Petraeus
I Am
Life
Sorry
" It wasn't just Shia that would go to Tehran and see the commander of the Quds Force and others and the legitimate government leaders. It was also Kurdish leaders and Sunni Arabs who would even link up with Qassim Suleimani, the commander of the Quds Force - maybe not in Tehran but in Turkey or somewhere else. "
David Petraeus
Somewhere
See
Others
" Iraq is a country I came to know well and the place where I spent some of the most consequential years of my life. "
David Petraeus
Life
Country
Know
" There is not a military commander alive today who is genetically predisposed to say that he has enough ISR and assets, and particularly not in the Central Command theater. "
David Petraeus
Genetically
Today
Alive
" At least from a national security standpoint, none of the problems the U.S. and U.K. face will become easier to solve if the U.K. is out of the E.U.; on the contrary, I fear that a 'Brexit' would only make our world even more dangerous and difficult to manage. "
David Petraeus
Security
Problems
Fear
" Leadership is an individual sport, one that has to be fine-tuned to each of the people that reports to you. Leaders also need to provide the direction, energy, encouragement and inspiration for each person who reports directly to the leader as well as for the overall organization. "
David Petraeus
Leadership
You
People
" Ungoverned spaces in the Islamic world will be exploited by people who wish us ill. They will not be contained. "
David Petraeus
People
Us
Wish
" The tragedy is that political leaders failed so badly at delivering what Iraqis clearly wanted - and for that, a great deal of responsibility lies with Prime Minister Maliki. "
David Petraeus
Political
Great
Responsibility
" Leaders of the various Iraqi elements will likely have their own militias, and there will be endless rounds of brinkmanship on the road to post-Islamic State boundaries, governing structures, and distribution of power and resources. "
David Petraeus
Power
Own
Will
" 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
Country
Bad
You
" Life is a competitive endeavor. "
David Petraeus
Life
Competitive
Endeavor
" You cannot deal with an industrial-strength extremist problem just with force of arms. You have to have that political component as well. "
David Petraeus
Well
Problem
Political
" We periodically note that there are no silver bullets, there are no magic formulas, there's no single action or component of the overall... comprehensive civil-military approach. "
David Petraeus
Magic
Action
Single