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" I have instincts. "
Robert M. Gates
Instincts
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" I've seen, all too often in my career, people coming in to lead agencies and organizations and trying to impose change from the top down. Never works. You never have enough time. "
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" I'm a big advocate of drones. "
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" You know, if I were an - if I were a Taliban, I'd say, 'What did al-Qaida ever do for me except get me kicked out of Afghanistan?' "
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" A wild and crazy weekend involves sitting on the front porch, smoking a cigar, reading a book. "
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" If Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything in recent history, it is the unpredictability of war and that these things are easier to get into than to get out of, and, frankly, the facile way in which too many people talk about, 'Well, let's just go attack them.' "
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" I've spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position. And it didn't have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong. "
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" Some people have said, in so many words, that I'm kind of wooly-headed in believing that the Iranians would see not having nuclear weapons as more in their security interest than not. "
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" I had no difficulty as Secretary of Defense moving from the Bush administration to the Obama administration. "
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Moving
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" There's a lot of books out there about how you lead change in business, but I've certainly not seen any... on how you do that in public institutions. "
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Lead
Seen
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" Most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done. "
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Most
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" Well, I've ruffled a few feathers at all the institutions I've led. But I think that's part of leadership. "
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Feathers
Leadership
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" If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience. "
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Example
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" One of my favorite little sayings is, 'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.' "
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Say
Nothing
Little
" There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody in the world knows that, its just fact of life. So sometimes I think we could conduct ourselves with a little more humility. "
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Humility
World
Think
" The United States has been a global power since late in the 19th century. "
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Power
United
United States
" I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice. "
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Will
Just
I Am
" I consider myself a Republican. "
Robert M. Gates
Consider
Myself
Republican
" When I was the director of Central Intelligence in the early '90s, I tried to get the Air Force to partner with us in building drones. And they didn't want to, because they had no pilots. "
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" I mean, when you get down to very low numbers of nuclear weapons, and you contemplate going to zero, how do you deal with the reality of that technology being available to almost any country that seeks to pursue it? And what conditions do you put in place? "
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Reality
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" I have tried to maintain civil relationships with everyone I meet - and, even if I violently disagree with them, try to be respectful. "
Robert M. Gates
Try
Relationships
Meet
" The reality is, the United States has global interests. Our defense budget is about the same as the defense budgets or military budgets of every other country in the world put together. "
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Reality
Budget
World
" Well, Israel, obviously, thinks of the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel. "
Robert M. Gates
Existential
Well
Israel
" Health care costs are eating the Defense Department alive. "
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Eating
Health
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" Defense is not like other discretionary spending. "
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Spending
Defense
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" I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the United States' essentially unilaterally disarming. "
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" I read in the press, and therefore it must be true, that no secretary of defense had ever been quoted as arguing for a bigger budget for State. "
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Budget
True
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" I think that Iran with a nuclear weapon is extremely destabilizing. I think it could precipitate a nuclear arms race in the region. "
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" I had no concerns - I had no reason to have concerns based on what was available to me about North's contacts with the private sector people, but I didn't think a CIA person should do it. "
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" No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on. "
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" I don't think any president that I worked with has ever said 'pretty please.' "
Robert M. Gates
Said
Think
Please