Jim Talent Quotes

I have a very firm limitation in mind, but I don’t think the Joint Chiefs do. I know they don’t.

Commanders-in-chief make really tough decisions.

Success in past U.S. conflicts has not been strictly the result of military leadership but rather the judgment of the president in choosing generals and setting broad strategy.

My job is to give the president and secretary of defense military advice before they know they need it.

I am a general. My soldiers are the keys and I have to command them.

One mediocre general is better than two good ones.

The military cannot be indifferent to its succession.

The country is going to ruin for a want of a proper Head to the War Department.

And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader.

Whenever we get involved in a war, the White House seems to have 3 priorities: We cannot appear to be losing; we must appear to be winning; we must look like we know what we are doing.

War is best left to the Generals. I believe in letting the military authorities manage the army. If they manage it badly, we shall make a bad matter worse by tampering and interfering.

Generals do not always run wars the way they would like to, nor the troops under them.

Military decisions are much more difficult and more often wrong than civilian decisions.

There were many military officers more senior to George C. Marshall when Franklin Delano Roosevelt selected him as the Chief of Staff for WWII.

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Centcom, is probably the most decorated officer of his generation.

To get an Army that's already fighting a war to change in stride to a total different military strategy on the ground - and to get everybody on the same page - was accomplished by the sheer force of Dave Petraeus' will.

You have to give the soldiers, the Army, a clear vision.

I started my career in the U.S. military. Traditionally, in the military... you either start with a technical background or a more leadership-focused one. I took the leadership path.

It has been said that one bad general is better than two good ones, and the saying is true if taken to mean no more than that an army is better directed by a single mind, though inferior, than by two superior ones at variance and cross-purposes with each other.

When you are Commander in Chief, you should keep all your options on the table.

If you talk to a British officer or NCO about the strategic objectives of the end state, you'll often get a spirited discussion that's very well informed.

The military executes policy decisions.

I actually understand what a Marine on the ground goes through. I've seen generals and admirals struggle with different situations.

Only four secretaries of defense served longer than Robert M. Gates. Many others were as dedicated; many sacrificed a great deal. Alone among them all, however, Mr. Gates had the task of turning around two wars that the U.S. was losing.

What he's really talking about - and I'm speaking for Mike Flynn, not Donald Trump - is that he's saying, essentially, we have to have options. We have to have a lot of options. And, frankly, we do. We do have a lot of options.