John Abizaid Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“Clearly the Secretary of Defense, my boss, would like nothing better than to get Osama bin Laden and to get... to ensure the complete defeat of al-Qaida, because we know that al-Qaida is planning operations against the United States even as we speak here.”

“The United States is the most powerful nation on Earth and it just can't walk away from the Middle East and central Asia and the Horn of Africa.”

“As far as Zarqawi is concerned, there is a network of extremists; it's not just Zarqawi.”

“But I am satisfied that the information that we have that this is the work of Zarqawi, is accurate.”

“But clearly the fact that we've gone from zero Iraqi security forces on duty in May to up to 200,000 today is an enormous accomplishment, but it's not enough.”

“But the key shift in focus will be from counter-insurgency operations to more and more cooperation with Iraqi security forces and to building Iraqi security capacity.”

“But the truth of the matter is that there is there is an opportunity for them to participate in the economic and political future of the country and certainly in the security life of the country.”

“But all that having been said, you can't, in a city of a million people like Karbala, or 5 million like Baghdad, you can't be in all places at all times.”

“Capturing any member of any terrorist cell or any insurgent cell that we may happen to come across is always very, very valuable, and the thing that interests me is that in most instances after a time, people talk and they tell us what they know.”

“It's clear to me now that we've got to reach out to the Arab Sunni community in particular in an effort to cause some moderate political activity to take place so they join the future of Iraq.”