Quotes by John Abizaid

“We must fight the terrorists together so that we can have a free and prosperous future for the Iraqi people,”

“Why (anyone) would want to move against us in an overt manner that would cause us to use our air or naval power against them would be beyond me... We can generate more military power per square inch than anybody else on Earth, and everybody knows it... If you ever even contemplate our nuclear capability, it should give everybody the clear understanding that there is no power that can match the United States militarily,”

“It makes sense that as NATO forces go in, and theyre more in numbers, that we could drop some of the U.S. requirements somewhat,”

“Tell them we are winning, ... You dont define success as the absence of hard losses. You define it - are you defeating the enemy?”

“a classical guerrilla-type campaign.”

“The important thing is whether or not the overall movement towards stability and security is falling more and more in the hands of the Iraqis,”

“Clearly, we understand that weve got an enemy thats in for the long term, al-Qaida and the associated groups that are aligned with it, ... We know that theyve got a long-term strategy to fight, to gain ground, to gain influence. And its very very clear that weve got to have the same sort of long term strategy to contest it. But the keystone to this strategy is helping the people in the region help themselves.”

“The enemy that brought us 9/11 continues to represent one of the greatest dangers to this nation,”

“When we continue to pick at the wound and show the pictures over and over again it just creates the image ? a false image ? like this is the sort of stuff that is happening anew, and its not,”

“We must help others in the region help themselves by promoting self-reliant partners who are willing to face the enemy.”

Well, the hardest thing to do, as we know from our own experience on 9/11 is protect everything all the time.

I think what actually works best is local-level individual targeting of key leadership nodes.

Every American soldier wants as much public support as he can possibly have. Thats the soldiers on duty in Iraq, and thats me, as well. We fight better knowing that our people back home support us, back us, and understand what were doing. Its hugely important.