Donald Rumsfeld citations

Donald Henry Rumsfeld, né le 9 juillet 1932 à Evanston , est un homme politique américain. Membre du Parti républicain, il est secrétaire à la Défense entre 1975 et 1977 dans l'administration du président Gerald Ford puis entre 2001 et 2006 dans l'administration du président George W. Bush, la première fois devenant le plus jeune titulaire du poste, la seconde fois le plus âgé.

Membre fondateur du think tank néoconservateur Project for the New American Century, ancien champion de lutte et pilote de l'US Navy, il est aussi un adepte du franc-parler et un important stratège militaire[réf. nécessaire].

✵ 9. juillet 1932
Donald Rumsfeld photo
Donald Rumsfeld: 39   citations 0   J'aime

Donald Rumsfeld Citations

Donald Rumsfeld: Citations en anglais

“It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog.”

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/10/22/sprj.irq.main/index.html
referring to the ongoing War on Terrorism
2000s

“Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or vice versa.”

Department of Defense news briefing (12 February 2002)
Variant:
Now what is the message there? The message is that there are no "knowns." There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.
:It sounds like a riddle. It isn't a riddle. It is a very serious, important matter.
:There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist. And yet almost always, when we make our threat assessments, when we look at the world, we end up basing it on the first two pieces of that puzzle, rather than all three.
:* Extending on his earlier comments in a press conference at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium (6 June 2002) http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2002/s020606g.htm
2000s

“We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat….”

Interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News This Week, March 30, 2003
Contexte: We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.... I would also add, we saw from the air that there were dozens of trucks that went into that facility after the existence of it became public in the press and they moved things out. They dispersed them and took them away. So there may be nothing left. I don't know that. But it's way too soon to know. The exploitation is just starting.

“It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.”

Rumsfeld's Rules" January 12, 1974 http://library.villanova.edu/vbl/bweb/rumsfeldsrules.pdf
1970s

“It recalls to mind the statement by Winston Churchill, something to the effect that: I have benefited greatly from criticism, and at no time have I suffered a lack thereof.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110801579.html?nav=rss_politics
During the Nomination of Robert Gates for the next U.S. Secretary of Defense, November 8, 2006
2000s

“I suppose the implication of that is the president and the vice president and myself and Colin Powell just fell off a turnip truck to take these jobs.”

In response to Jeffrey Goldberg's question to comment on accusations that the "Jewish lobby" maneuvered the administration into war. The New Republic, October 8, 2007. http://www.tnr.com/toc/story.html?id=523b5134-8643-4f5e-a314-ac9b8a786b16&p=13
2000s

“And there is, I am certain, among the Iraqi people a respect for the care and the precision that went into the bombing campaign.”

DoD News Briefing April 09, 2003 http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=2339
2000s

“I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?”

Written on a memo in reference to the treatment of Guantanamo prisoner and to the way he worked in his office as Secretary of Defense, 2002. Reported in The Washington Post, 24 June 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A946-2004Jun23.html
2000s

“Let's hear it for the essential daily briefing, however hollow and empty it might be. We'll do it.”

Meeting with Media Pool Bureau Chiefs October 18, 2001 http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2001/t10192001_t1018bc.html
2000s

“As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. Since the Iraq conflict began, the Army has been pressing ahead to produce the armor necessary at a rate that they believe -- it's a greatly expanded rate from what existed previously, but a rate that they believe is the rate that is all that can be accomplished at this moment.”

[Troops put Rumsfeld in the hot seat, http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/08/rumsfeld.kuwait/index.html, 2006-04-07, 2004-12-08, CNN]
Responding to the question "Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up armor our vehicles, and why don't we have those resources readily available to us?"
2000s

“We do have a saying in America: if you're in a hole, stop digging ….. erm, I'm not sure I should have said that.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,,1943315,00.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/09/24/schroeder.blair/index.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20030621143902/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s865620.htm
2000s

“And it is not knowable if force will be used, but if it is to be used, it is not knowable how long that conflict would last. It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”

TownHall Meeting At Aviano Air Base in Italy (7 February 2003) https://web.archive.org/web/20070114160540/http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/t02072003_t0207sdtownhall.html
2000s

“I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that.”

Interview with Steve Croft, Infinity CBS Radio Connect (14 November 2002) https://web.archive.org/web/20031217182208/http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2002/t11152002_t1114rum.html
2000s

“I didn't advocate invasion…I wasn't asked.”

Responding to George Stephanopoulos about whether he would have advocated an invasion of Iraq if he had known that no weapons of mass destruction would be found there, ABC News This Week, November 20, 2005 http://mediamatters.org/items/200511230004
2000s

“You and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase immediate threat. I didn't, the president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's what's happened.”

CBS Face the Nation (14 March 2004) http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040314-secdef0542.html; in response Thomas Friedman quoted his previous statement from a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee (10 September 2002) http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/US/HearingsPreparedstatements/hasc-091802.htm:
:: But no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
2000s

“Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet.”

Regards upcoming elections in Iraq http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1283005.htm, January 14, 2005.
2000s

“The natural state of man is to want to be free. To have opportunities. To have choices.”

On Arab Spring, Rumsfeld, that he wasn't surprised by popular uprisings of Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/08/rumsfeld.interview/index.html March 9, 2011.
2010s

“Oh, Lord. I didn't mean to say anything quotable.”

Interview with Associated Press Friday, September 7, 2001 http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2001/t09102001_t0907ap.html
2000s

“What we are seeing is not the war in Iraq. What we're seeing is slices of the war in Iraq.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,,1943315,00.html
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/21/se.14.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june03/warcoverage_3-22.html
2000s

“Pieces of intelligence, scraps of intelligence…you run down leads and you run down leads, and you hope that sometimes it works.”

DoD News Briefing May 01, 2002 http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=3424
2000s

“Now, you're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.”

As quoted in "Outrage at 'old Europe' remarks" in BBC News (23 January 2003) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2687403.stm
2000s

“Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.”

"Rumsfeld's Rules" January 12, 1974 http://library.villanova.edu/vbl/bweb/rumsfeldsrules.pdf
1970s

“I shouldn't get into … this is diplomacy, and I don't do diplomacy.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,,1943315,00.html
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0304/30/se.01.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/bh/rumsfeld.shtml
2000s

“I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that's a good thing.”

Talking to reporters about whether President Bush knows about equipment inadequacies in Iraq http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=1985
2000s

“I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons.”

At a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense (14 May 2003)
2000s

“There will be good moments, and there will be less good moments.”

April 7, 2004, in reference to the 2004 spring uprising in Iraq http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=2469
2000s

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