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" I don't comment directly on actions or statements of candidates. "

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" The bottom line is, you really have to commit to something if you're going to be successful in it. "

" You have to keep on disrupting. If you let up the pressure, then al-Qaeda senior leadership will come back. "

" 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. "

" There is no question in my mind that a 'Brexit' would deal a significant blow to the E.U.'s strength and resilience at exactly the moment when the West is under attack from multiple directions. "

" A certain degree of intellectual humility is a good thing. "

" Central to achieving progress in Afghanistan - and to setting the conditions necessary to transition security tasks from the international community to the Afghan government - is increasing the size and capability of ANSF. "

" The situation in Iraq was dire at the end of 2006, when President George W. Bush decided to implement the surge and selected me to command it. Indeed, when I returned to Baghdad in early February 2007, I found the conditions there to be even worse than I had expected. "

" Partners from the Islamic world are of particular importance. Indeed, they have huge incentives to be involved, as the ongoing struggles are generally not clashes between civilizations. Rather, what we are seeing is more accurately a clash within a civilization: that of the Islamic world. "

" 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. "

" I refuse to use terms like 'optimist' or 'pessimist' and instead prefer 'realist.' "

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

" To do de-Baathification without an agreed process of reconciliation threw tens of thousands of people out of their jobs, out of their homes, out of their future, and even robbed them of their position in society. "

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

" The word 'insurgency' had connotations that really sent a shiver down the spine of folks in Washington, in the United States - for good reason, because it means this is something much bigger than just a few terrorist cells. "

" Life is a competitive endeavor. "

" The biggest of the big ideas that guided the strategy during the surge was explicit recognition that the most important terrain in the campaign in Iraq was the human terrain - the people - and our most important mission was to improve their security. "

" There were very few people who were both intercollegiate athletes and Star Men. "

" The formulation of sound national policy requires finding the right overarching concepts. "

" Iraq is a country I came to know well and the place where I spent some of the most consequential years of my life. "

" Only Nixon could have gone to China. Anyone else would have been criticised from the Right. "

" 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. "

" Being in combat is not unending high-five moments. "

" 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. "

" Iran has had a very harmful effect in a variety of ways in the region... fomenting unrest to a degree in Saudi Arabia, undoubtedly in Bahrain, and definitely in Yemen with Hamas, with Lebanese Hezbollah among other activities in locations. "

" 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. "

" There aren't always a hell of a lot of absolutely right answers out there. "

" Counter-insurgency, as you know, is a roller-coaster affair. "

" Proud parents document the arrival and growth of their future CIA officer in all forms of social media that the world can access for decades to come. "

" 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. "

" Committing to a particular goal publicly puts pressure on oneself. It becomes an enormous action-forcing mechanism and often helps you achieve more than you might have had you kept your goals to yourself. "