David Petraeus Quotes

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David Petraeus

Profession : General

Birth : November 7, 1952

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

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

Being in combat is not unending high-five moments.

David Petraeus

All Americans should take great pride in the men and women serving our nation in Iraq and in the courage, determination, resilience and initiative they demonstrate each and every day. It remains the greatest of honors to soldier with them.

David Petraeus

The Middle East is not part of the world that plays by Las Vegas rules: What happens in the Middle East is not going to stay in the Middle East.

David Petraeus

The Afghan people do not take kindly to conquerors.

David Petraeus

After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair.

David Petraeus

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

David Petraeus

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

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

No greater privilege than I had as a soldier and then as a spymaster and to some degree now in the business world.

David Petraeus

In counterinsurgency operations, the human terrain is the decisive terrain.

David Petraeus

We cannot kill or capture our way out of an industrial-strength insurgency.

David Petraeus

We're all outriders out there, and what we have is all these large number of tasks - that's the herd; that's all the cattle - a whole bunch of individual, hundreds if not thousands of projects at any given time ongoing that we're trying to complete. So we're trying to keep the cattle herd, keep it all just going in the right direction.

David Petraeus

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

The idea is to go to bed every night with fewer enemies than you had in the morning.

David Petraeus

I had the privilege of serving in uniform with British forces in Cold War Europe, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the greater Middle East.

David Petraeus

Well, the oil, the oil spot, if you will, is a, is a term in counterinsurgency literature that connotes a peaceful area, secure area. So what you're trying to do is to always extend that, to push that out.

David Petraeus

The progress in Iraq is still fragile. And it could still be reversed. Iraq still faces innumerable challenges, and they will be evident during what will likely be a difficult process as the newly elected Council of Representatives selects the next prime minister, president, and speaker of the council.

David Petraeus

The fact is that Iran doesn't want to see the Taliban come back any more than do most Afghan citizens.

David Petraeus