Donald Rumsfeld People Quotations

Our task, your task... is to try to connect the dots before something happens. People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.

You will launch many projects, but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.

Prune - prune businesses, products, activities, people. Do it annually.

Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.

Public servants are paid to serve the American people. Do it well.

There is no question there are people out looking,

There is no question that the effectiveness of the bombing is vastly improved as you have people on the ground in communication with the aircraft overhead, ... We now have some larger number of teams of people on the ground ... and the effectiveness of bombing is improving every day.

We've always known that there are people who've tried to infiltrate the various security forces and get to close access to places they ought not to be. There's nothing new about that that I know of.

What they're doing is they're trying to pretend that they're functioning well, leave the impression that people should give them money, their financiers, leave the impression that they're a viable organization and that they should get recruits, and just generally give encouragement to their people,

We've spent the day talking to people and seeing the steps that have been taken to see that those types of abuses to people for whom we have a responsibility and custody will not happen again,

There are people running around with digital cameras, taking these unbelievable pictures, sending them out against the law, and they haven't even arrived at the Pentagon yet!

So if a mistake was made, a mistake was made, but it was made with our people on the ground, with eyes on the target,

People who are willing to risk their lives need to know the truth, ... They need to understand that they are there based on decisions that were made in good faith, by responsible people, and that this world is going to be a lot better off with Saddam Hussein gone and with that country on a path toward democracy.

I’m not a doctor and I’m not the kind of a person who would be in a position to approve or disapprove. It seems to me, looking at it from this distance, is that the responsible people are the combatant commanders. And the Army is the executive agent for detainees.

But we don't go out and say something inaccurate about it. You lose so much more if, in fact, people cannot believe what you're saying.

I have been doing a number of things with respect to national security and foreign policy issues in the intervening years, and I look forward to it, ... I really do. It's a fine institution, and there are wonderful people there.

helping bring the people of Iraq to a great future.

What we will be doing at NATO is trying to help people connect the dots before something happens rather than afterwards.

I agreed only with the fact that some people talk like that and that Vice President Agnew should not have used or thought such derogatory and offensive and unfair and insensitive things about minorities.

I think the only people who could conceivably be talking about a draft are people who are speaking from pinnacles of near-perfect ignorance.

I think that will save American lives and save coalition lives and be a great benefit to the Iraqi people to be free of that,

People are dead, and that's unfortunate, ... People need to be very careful about what they say just as people need to be careful about what they do.

people all across the spectrum, insurgents and opponents, people kind of leaning that way, people in the middle, people leaning toward the government and then the government.

People have been moving together, talking, discussing things, ... You can always find someone who's going to try to be a dead-ender and say, 'If you don't do this, I won't do that.' But that's part of negotiation. We see that in the Congress and we see it in democratic systems all over the world.

Success will only occur if there's progress on the political front so that the Iraqi people see that in fact it is their country. It is a sovereign nation. They are in control of it,

I think leaving the American people with the impression that it was an election that was valid -- there were over 1,000 candidates that were disqualified, that weren't even allowed to run,

managing their affairs as people responsible for weapons of that power.

We figure we may still have that many people on the rolls. But of the ones that are trained and equipped, the number now looks to be, the latest number -- last week it was 105,000 -- now it looks to be 95,000, that is to say that are trained and equipped,

We've got our people analyzing what they have proposed, ... Some of it is difficult to understand.

We have broad and deep evidence that suggests that there are people going through that decision-making process throughout that country today, and that is a good thing,

We're working to make clear to the Afghan people that we support them, and we're working to free them from the Taliban and their foreign terrorist allies,

We're within 49 miles of Baghdad, ... He's being closed on from the north, south, and there's so many people running around hyperventilating that things aren't going well. This plan is working.

We have the ability to go out and attract and retain the people we're going to need in the United States armed forces,

What it doesn't do is shock and awe and alter the calculations of the people you're dealing with,

Most of the 50 or so invitations you receive each week come from people inviting the President's Chief of Staff, not you. If you doubt that, ask your predecessor how many he received last week.

Members of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate are not there by accident. Each managed to get there for some reason. Learn what it was and you will know something important about them, about our country and about the American people.

The press always wants to know how many people will be killed or how much it will cost, but the answers to those questions are not knowable.

A large number of people to begin crawling through those tunnels and caves looking for the bad folks.

A few. . . critics are the only people I ever heard use the phrase 'imminent threat.' I didn't, the president didn't.

No terror 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.

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

The success of an organization will depend on the people you surround yourself with.

I recognize the need to provide the press - and, through you, the American people - with information to the fullest extent possible. In our democracy, the work of the Pentagon press corps is important, defending our freedom and way of life is what this conflict is about, and that certainly includes freedom of the press.

If you are working from your inbox, you are working on other people’s priorities.

We'll have to deal with the networks. One of the ways to do that is to drain the swamp they live in. And that means dealing not only with the terrorists, but those who harbor terrorists. This will take a long, sustained effort. It will require the support of the American people as well as our friends and allies around the world.

If you look ahead 10 years, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the people of Russia had become fans of missile defence.

The problem is the people who tend to be the best organized are the most radical and the most vicious.

I don't think we'll discover anything, myself. I think what will happen is we'll discover people who will tell us where to go find it. It is not like a treasure hunt where you just runaround looking everywhere hoping you find something. I just don't think that's going to happen. The inspectors didn't find anything, and I doubt that we will. What we will do is find the people who will tell us.

I cannot give any assurances. I'm not in that business. I haven't been, and I don't intend to get into it. People who try to make predictions about things or assurances often find they're wrong.

Have a deputy and develop a successor. Don't be consumed by the job or you'll risk losing your balance. Keep your mooring lines to the outside world - family, friends, neighbors, people out of government, and people who may not agree with you.

When there happens to be a weapon of mass destruction suspect site in an area that we occupy and if people have time, they'll look at it.

If there are people who yearn for the days when Saddam Hussein was in power, then I am not among them.

What is the value of having millions of people in Iraq not having a repressive regime? What is the value of having the Iraqi regime not shooting at UK and US aircraft almost every day? What is the value of the Iraqis having a free press? What is the value of the foreign minister of Iraq going to Paris, calling for an end of the Gadhafi regime and citing Iraq as a model, as an example, that in fact a freer political system can exist in that part of the world?

You can have a broad popular democracy movement and have it end being taken over by the most vicious people and the result is you don't end up with free political systems or free economic systems, you end up with a handful of radicals controlling the country.

The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. It's to change the behavior of the people that are being terrorized.

There are many teams of people out looking at the sites that we're aware of, ... But, as I say, I don't think we're going to just stumble over something. I think people are going to come up finally, and say, 'Here's what happened. Here's what they've done,' and already there are things that have been related to us that have been helpful.

We're not inclined to add to the number of people that would be given that extensive access,

The president, the secretary of defense and the combatant commanders are never more than a minute or two away from a secure phone. ...Very, very senior people are able to address a matter in real time and ask the right questions and make the right judgments,

We are engaged in a test of wills. And to the extent that the American people are subjected to a constant series of negative things or disappointing things or problems as opposed to a balanced impression of what's taking place in that country, it has to be discouraging to anyone reading what is read or said.

While there is no one model that is perfect for every nation at every time in its development, a look across the globe suggests that societies that tend to encourage more open markets and freer systems are societies where the people are enjoying the greatest opportunities,

What we are basically involved in is providing assistance and food and ammunition and liaison in a way that targeting should be more precise, ... These people have been fighting for ages. They know their own minds, and they are going to move when they see fit.

At some point, you say, 'we think we've got what we need out of this crowd -- five people -- let's move them along.'

These are the people who took plastic knives and box cutters and flew airplanes filled with themselves, as well as American citizens, into the World Trade Center and this building you're sitting in (the Pentagon), ... Why would one be surprised that they're determined, well-trained, clever, capable of using modern technology ... to kill people?

The terrorists won't win. The Iraqi people will win,

I wanted to have a chance to look at the bases and get briefed by the military people on the island and develop a first-hand opinion about what's taking place there and how we're arranged.

Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators, and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom,

Saddam Hussein has killed more Muslim people than perhaps any living person on the face of the Earth,

Quitting is not an exit strategy. It would be a formula for putting the American people at still greater risk,

People say, 'Well, where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction.

So the fact that they had a mock election and elected a hard-liner ought not come to any surprise to anybody because all the other people were told they couldn't run.

Anyone who looks at the overhead photography of these poor human beings, amassing into thousands of people trekking across drought-stricken areas, has to be just heartbroken. It is important that we and other countries assist those people,

The way that we can leave that country better than we found it, a lot better -- no more mass graves, no more prisons filled with people -- we can leave it by investing in the kinds of security that we're talking about here, ... That is what this request is overwhelmingly about.

They've got a peaceful way to change that government -- through the constitution, through the elections. These people aren't trying to promote something other than disorder and to take over that country and turn it into a caliphate and then spread it around the world.

They found courage, ... Indeed, millions of people found courage.

The more troops you have, the more targets you have, and the more people you might get killed. The more troops you have, the more of an occupying power you are, the heavier footprint, the more force protection you need, the more logistics you need and the more intrusive you are on the people of that country.

It's a big world. There are lots of countries. He's got a lot of money, he's got a lot of people who support him, and I just don't know whether we'll be successful, ... Clearly, it would be highly desirable to find him and stop him and his key people and there are a lot of them. We're not looking for one person. We're looking for a whole crowd. And that's our intent and our intention. How can anyone know what the outcome is going to be until you get there?

It's based on unit cohesion, ... The principle is that -- in the event there is something that requires a unit to be involved in, and people are in a personal situation where their time was ending -- they put a stop-loss on it so cohesion is maintained.

It will take a broad, sustained effort that will have to use our diplomatic, our political, our economic, our financial strength, as well as our military strength, ... It will take time. It's not a matter of days or weeks. It's years. It's going to take the support of the American people and I have every confidence it'll be there.

They know where the bank accounts are, they know the names of the people who were trained, they know the sleeper cells that exist around the world,

I have not seen the tape. I do not know if that is on the tape.. whether or not he was dead or alive when whatever took place did take place, ... It seems to me that one ought to be willing to allow some time to pass over something like this so that the people who are looking at these things can come to some conclusions.

Instead of an attack with 3,000 people killed, imagine an attack with a biological weapon that kills 30,000 or 300,000 innocent people.

I honestly believe that these two are particularly bad characters and that it's important for the Iraqi people to see them, to know they are gone, to know they are dead and to know they are not coming back,

I don't think that I would characterize what's going on in Iran as a democratic system, ... I don't think I would say that it fits the principles that I've just indicated. I think there are an awful lot of people in Iran who feel that that small group of clerics that determine what takes place in that country is not their idea of how they want to live their lives.

If every time two or three people disagreed we changed the secretary of defense of the United States, it would be like a merry-go-round.

How many young people are being taught to go out as suicide bombers and kill people? ... How does that inflow of terrorists in the world get reduced so that the number of people being captured or killed is greater than the ones being produced?

The Iraqi people who are involved in this process are relatively new to the political process. It will take them some time I suspect.

All I can say to the families and to the people of Japan is that we feel deep regrets about the incident, and we'll do everything humanly possible to determine what actually took place.

The hope is that those Taliban people will in fact move over and support the Northern Alliance and support the tribes in the south, ... The point of the broadcasts and of the leaflets that are being dropped is that we're encouraging people to surrender or to change sides.

And by the same token, we've got to keep our eye on the ball, and the ball is trying to protect the American people from additional terrorist attacks and try to track down the folks that are planning threats against our country, here and abroad.