Anthony Zinni
I think the Mogadishu effect, if I had to define it, is we need to be more careful where we decide to commit US forces, and for what reason, and to make a clear judgment as to what we can and can't do and whether it's in our interests, or we could afford the resources that it would take to make the situation right.
In the lead up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption.
I think that before you take on nation building in your mind's eye as to how it should be, you'd better have a clear understanding if this is doable and will work.
You have to give everybody another recourse as some means other than violence, no matter how distasteful it may be to have to deal with them and what they represent.
In the lead-up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw, at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence, and irresponsibility; at worst, lying, incompetence, and corruption.Collection: War
If you put two brigades on the ground right now with U.S. forces, they would push ISIS back into Syria in a heartbeat.Collection: Military
Service rivalry leads to service pride, which is good for building morale and esprit.Collection: Pride
We will pay for this [climate change] one way or another. We will pay to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions today and we'll have to take an enormous hit of some kind. Or we will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives. There will be a human toll. There is no way out of this that does not have real costs attached to it.Collection: Military
I think it's (Israeli pressure for invading Iraq) the worst kept secret in Washington, everybody I talked to in Washington has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do; because I mentioned the Neo-Conservatives who describe themselves as Neo-Conservatives, I was called, Anti-Semitic.Collection: Thinking
Yet, here we are, long and difficult years into that conflict," ... "we still have not created the state we promised them. On the contrary, our costly and valiant efforts have produced an outcome our government did not predict or intend-a failed state spinning out of control into anarchy and civil war.Collection: War
The United Nations offers international legitimacy in what we might do.Collection: Might