Chuck Hagel Quotes - Page 2

It is easy to get into war, not so easy to get out.

In a general way, if one cannot attribute to the Jew the whole responsibility of the situation, economic, political, and social, by which Algeria is being strangled, it is no exaggeration to recognize him as morally guilty, for the great part of his rìle here, still more than elsewhere, has consisted in corrupting, degrading, and disintegrating.

We live in a world where there are dangerous people, there are bad people.

This is eventually how Syria will be resolved - through a political settlement.

Foreign policy is all about a universe of bad decisions, imperfect decisions; every situation is different. The dynamics, the atmospherics, the people, the pressures, the geopolitical realities shift.

If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes. This is a tough business.

The Israeli people must be free to live in peace and security.

There's always a balance, I think, any administration has to find in not just the military but in any agency of government.

Imposing democracy through force is a roll of the dice.

If America is to succeed in responding to these 21st Century challenges, our political system cannot continue to bog down in the mire of partisan gamesmanship.

I am fully supportive of 'open service' and committed to LGBT military families.

I don't get into the book-telling business of conversations I have with the president. That's not my style, and I don't think that's a responsible thing to do.

Desperate men do desperate things when you take hope away. And that's where the Palestinians are today.

I’m a United States senator. I’m not an Israeli senator.

The United States can't impose democracies. We can't impose our will. The Russians found that out in Afghanistan.

I'm the first secretary of defense that's had to deal with sequestration. I've prepared two budgets that deal with sequestration. And you bring the chiefs together, the leadership of this enterprise together, to work through, how do we then take these cuts? Where do we apply those cuts? Readiness is the first thing that suffers.

I have said many times that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism.

I'm not saying my idea is the one and only idea. We should have other ideas, but the president has not laid down a specific plan as to how he's going to get us to solvency. I do that.

Well, let's go back to the original intent of Social Security. It is an insurance contract.

If we have to continue to live under sequestration, it will have a maximum impact on our ability to fulfill the president's strategic guidance. We can't do it all. It's as simple as that, with the limitations of the budget as severe as they are. These deep, abrupt cuts have forced us to make decisions that are not in the interest of America.

Palestinians caged up like animals.

You can't just drop the 82nd Airborne into Baghdad and it will all be over.

Bogging down large armies in historically complex, dangerous areas ends in disaster.

We can't ... take that piece of reality in this business and set that aside and say, well, that doesn't count. And the Republicans on my side understand that the majority is in fact up for grabs next year. So there's not a decision made up here that doesn't have that factor coursing through that current.

The recent wave of Taliban attacks has made clear that the international community must not waiver in its support for a stable, secure and prosperous Afghanistan.