Christopher Dodd Quotes

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility.

There is no area where experience matters more than in war and diplomacy.

Foreign policy is painstakingly difficult, and if there is to be anything gained from the experience in Libya, it is how not to conduct world affairs.

Blair overestimated his ability to influence U.S. decisions on Iraq.

I'm perfectly willing to say no more Iraqs, which means no more unilateral starting of the war on false claims, false information, and a complete misunderstanding of the nature of the situation in the region.

War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men.

I did more than anyone else in persuading the U.S. to get rid of Saddam.

War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.

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

We will not send troops. Germany is not committed to Iraq - we will not commit ourselves with troops.

It's not the job of the U.S. military to do nation-building or produce democratic utopias.

Mistakes, after all, are endemic to foreign and military policy given the unpredictability of events and the difficulty of securing reliable information in a place like Iraq.

I am the commander in chief of the United States armed forces, and Iraq is gonna have to ultimately provide for its own security.

I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not.

President Obama's record on national security is a tribute to his strength, and judgment, and to his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship.

I do not believe that diplomacy equals weakness…. If you are going to use force you better make sure that it is effective.

He had rather spend 100,000 pounds on Embassies to keep or procure peace with dishonor, than 100,000 pounds on an army that would have forced peace with honor.

We’re not going to need as many people to do peacekeeping as we needed to fight the war.

No American President should ever take any option off the table.

We have to deal with it diplomatically if we can, militarily if we must.

Is a military solution the only way to stop nations from doing bad things?

Preemption, democracy promoting and nation building have all been sullied by association by association with the War in Iraq.

War should never be thought of as something autonomous, but always as an instrument of policy.

Foreign policy is like plumbing. You never notice it till it breaks and then all hell breaks loose.

History teaches us these lessons for the interveners: leave your prejudices at home, keep your ambitions low, have enough resources to do the job, do not lose the golden hour, make security your first priority, involve the neighbors.