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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. "
Robert M. Gates
Hard
Long
War
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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. "
Robert M. Gates
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" Well, what I've said is that the war in Iraq will always be clouded by how it began, which was a wrong premise, that there were in fact no weapons of nuclear - weapons of mass destruction. "
Robert M. Gates
War
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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
" 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. "
Robert M. Gates
Early
Partner
Intelligence
" 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. "
Robert M. Gates
Budget
True
Defense
" 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.' "
Robert M. Gates
History
People
Talk
" Defense is not like other discretionary spending. "
Robert M. Gates
Spending
Defense
Like
" One of the big changes in the Congress since I first came to Washington is that all of these folks go home every weekend. They used to play golf together; their families got to know each other, go to dinner at each other's homes at weekends - and these would be people who were political adversaries. "
Robert M. Gates
Home
Dinner
Weekend
" Most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done. "
Robert M. Gates
Other
Most
Business
" No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on. "
Robert M. Gates
Same
Music
Think
" 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?' "
Robert M. Gates
Say
Me
Afghanistan
" Health care costs are eating the Defense Department alive. "
Robert M. Gates
Eating
Health
Defense
" I had no difficulty as Secretary of Defense moving from the Bush administration to the Obama administration. "
Robert M. Gates
Secretary
Moving
Difficulty
" If there's ever an example that military power alone cannot be successful in Afghanistan, I think it was the Soviet experience. "
Robert M. Gates
Experience
Example
Alone
" I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice. "
Robert M. Gates
Will
Just
I Am
" 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? "
Robert M. Gates
Reality
Technology
You
" Well, Israel, obviously, thinks of the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat to Israel. "
Robert M. Gates
Existential
Well
Israel
" 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. "
Robert M. Gates
Trying
Change
You
" Even when I was at CIA, I'd go to visit foreign leaders and I'd say, 'You know, I'm not a diplomat. I'm just an old CIA guy'... I said, 'If I wanted to be diplomatic, I'd have been a diplomat.' "
Robert M. Gates
Said
Say
Go
" 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. "
Robert M. Gates
Economy
Look
Over
" 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. "
Robert M. Gates
Words
Security
People
" The United States has been a global power since late in the 19th century. "
Robert M. Gates
Power
United
United States
" I have always voted for who I believed was the best person. "
Robert M. Gates
Best
Person
Who
" One of my favorite little sayings is, 'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.' "
Robert M. Gates
Say
Nothing
Little
" I have instincts. "
Robert M. Gates
Instincts
" I think that Iran with a nuclear weapon is extremely destabilizing. I think it could precipitate a nuclear arms race in the region. "
Robert M. Gates
Weapon
Iran
Arms
" Well, I've ruffled a few feathers at all the institutions I've led. But I think that's part of leadership. "
Robert M. Gates
Feathers
Leadership
Think
" I wish I could set deadlines for the Congress, but that's just not the way the Constitution is written. "
Robert M. Gates
Constitution
Congress
Wish
" I have always that there ought to be some kind of mandatory national service, not necessarily in the military but to show everybody that freedom isn't free, that everybody has an obligation to the nation as a community. "
Robert M. Gates
Community
Free
Freedom
" I consider myself a Republican. "
Robert M. Gates
Consider
Myself
Republican