“I’m a New York kid, so when I saw that plane that hit the first building, I suspected it was terrorism – blue sky day.”
― Jack Keane
“I totally disagree with the premise that al Qaeda is on the path to defeat. Quite the contrary, al Qaeda has deliberately decentralized its operations – not because of the relentless attacks we have had on its national leadership in Pakistan, but because its strategic objective is to dominate and control Muslim countries in the region.”
― Jack Keane
“On a professional side, you’ve got a tough problem to fix, Geoff Miller’s going to do it, and he’s always going to do it to very high standards, and he’s always going to be on the side of right. He’s always talking about ‘what right looks like’ – just a phrase he would always use.”
― Jack Keane
“Afghanistan is where much of the al Qaeda journey began. It is the main site where Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and their cohort rose to prominence fighting the Soviets in the 1980s. Afghan territory holds special significance to the group, which is committed to retaking it and re-establishing it as the base of a global movement.”
― Jack Keane
“I have decorated soldiers for heroism before, and it was always such an honor to do it.”
― Jack Keane
“The Taliban has not, in my judgment, in any significant way changed their fundamental goal and objective, which is to take over Afghanistan and return to running that country. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have negotiation talks with them. I think we should. But we’ve got to be clear-eyed about it.”
― Jack Keane
“Despite the obvious intelligence and security failures that contributed to the attack against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, the reality is that in one night, an al Qaeda-affiliated group destroyed a diplomatic post, killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, and forced an end to clandestine U.S. activity in the area.”
― Jack Keane
“Afghanistan remains an opportunity to deal al Qaeda a vital strategic blow, especially since we have abandoned all operations – including counterterrorism operations – in Iraq.”
― Jack Keane
“In Washington, D.C., in 2006, Democrats had long since given up on the war in Iraq in terms of any tangible political support for it. The new factor was the Republicans were beginning to give up as well, and they were truly challenging the strategy and the lack of success.”
― Jack Keane
“I believe, for a long time, protracted wars test the will of any democracy, to be sure, and people will underwrite a protracted war if they see some progress. But if they don’t see progress, and it appears to be futile and useless, then that political support begins to evaporate rather quickly.”
― Jack Keane
“Everybody wants to talk about sectarian conflicts of the war in Iraq, but the fact of the matter is, Sunnis have lived with Shias in harmony more in the confines of Iraq, in that land, than they have been in conflict. That’s an historical fact.”
― Jack Keane
“In my own mind, it is profoundly disappointing to see what has occurred in Iraq given the sacrifice of our troops, given our commitment to removing Saddam Hussein and putting in place a fledgling government that would have a chance for a stable, secure Iraq.”
― Jack Keane
“In 2005 in Iraq, the constitution was written. A new government was elected. That government was trying to take office in 2006.”
― Jack Keane
“I have a close association with Gen. Petraeus… What you get in Dave Petraeus is a very unique officer, a combination of intelligence, extraordinary depth of knowledge and understanding.”
― Jack Keane
“I remember speaking to a sheik who came back into the political system in late 2008, laid down his arms. His troops became part of the Sons of Iraq, the so-called Sunni Awakening.”
― Jack Keane
“By the end of 2008, clearly the Al Qaeda and Sunni insurgency had been relatively stabilized. And in the Al Qaeda’s mind, they were defeated.”
― Jack Keane
“My involvement with Guantanamo began as vice chief of staff.”
― Jack Keane
“Very unusual in an insurgency to have absolutely no political agenda other than to return to power. Most insurgents have a political side to them.”
― Jack Keane
“Radical Islamists spread from Western Africa through the Middle East, all the way to South Asia to sub-Indian continent.”
― Jack Keane
“I read people; that’s one of my strengths. It’s not that I can’t be fooled, but I’m not fooled often.”
― Jack Keane
“The Pentagon is actually a 10-story building, five up and five down.”
― Jack Keane
“The Pentagon is a series of wedges. So you have – the outer wedge has windows on the outside, and then inside of that, it has windows with an alleyway; then there’s another wedge with windows outside, windows inside. And we call them the E Ring, the D Ring, the C Ring.”
― Jack Keane
“Since 1989, we have been deploying on an average of every 18 months.”
― Jack Keane
“If you took ISIS’ oil, that would not stop them. It’s not their only source of revenue. It would be a setback, but it would not stop them.”
― Jack Keane
“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.”
― Jack Keane
“’Duty’ is a refreshingly honest memoir and a moving one. Mr. Gates scrupulously identifies his flaws and mistakes: He waited too long, for example, for the military bureaucracy to fix critical supply issues like the drones needed in Iraq and took three years to replace a dysfunctional command structure in Afghanistan.”
― Jack Keane
“Most people who aspire to be president don’t have a foreign policy and national security background. The exception was certainly Hillary Clinton.”
― Jack Keane
“Russia, their number one client in the Middle East is Syria; that is their foothold in the Middle East. They want to have influence there.”
― Jack Keane
“The fact that we walked away from the Middle East, as distasteful as it was for us to stay involved and prevent wars, based on our long involvement there, we have helped to create and provide a foundation. Obviously for ISIS and also for the absolute barbarianism and human catastrophe that Assad impacted on his people.”
― Jack Keane
“Yes, we need a force to continue to train, assist, advise the Iraqi army.”
― Jack Keane
“The success of ISIS is largely tied to the safe haven it has in Syria.”
― Jack Keane
“ISIS is at war with America, but America is not at war with ISIS – not the president, nor the Congress, and certainly not the American people.”
― Jack Keane
“Senator Clinton is very knowledgeable about national security and is probably going to be strong on defense. I have no doubts whatsoever that if she were president in January ’09, she would not act irresponsibly and issue orders to conduct an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, regardless of the consequences, and squander the gains that have been made.”
― Jack Keane
“I’m not in a position to go back into public service.”
― Jack Keane
“We have a sufficient political class, and the military doesn’t have to get involved in high national office. The days of doing that, post-Civil War and post-World War II, are gone.”
― Jack Keane
“In the early 2009, a campaign plan developed by Petraeus and General McChrystal to defeat the Taliban, they required a minimum force of 40,000. President Obama rejected that recommendation and provided 25 percent less. He also decided he would pull the force out in 12 to 15 months.”
― Jack Keane
“In 2011, General Alston, four-star commander in Iraq, recommended to the President, a force level of over 20,000. The President rejected it and pulled out all the forces with what is now known as a disastrous consequence in Syria.”
― Jack Keane
“In 2012, General Dempsey, General Petraeus directed the CIA, Secretary Panetta and Secretary Clinton recommended to the president to robustly arm and train the Syrian moderates. He says no. In 2013, conduct a military strike, same national security team, against the Assad regime because he violated the chemical red line. He says no.”
― Jack Keane
“If you’re going to maintain true authorities over a subordinate organization, you have to have some control over policy formulation of that organization and also the resources that are applied to it.”
― Jack Keane
“Sometimes, our expectations of being all-knowing is somewhat unrealistic. At the end of the day, there are people out there who mean harm to us, are thinking about doing harm to us and motivated to do it, and we don’t know what that is.”
― Jack Keane
“Qatar has funded and helped arm ISIS. They also, as we all know, fund Hamas. That’s got to stop. And we’ve got to use our pressure against that country to knock that stuff off.”
― Jack Keane
“Economically, ISIS is making money every day on the black market with their oil fields. But they are also putting money in banks. We know where those banks are. We should go after the banks and the facilitators using them.”
― Jack Keane
“ISIS is on the offense, with the ability to attack at will, anyplace, anytime.”
― Jack Keane
“Air power will not defeat ISIS. It has not been able to deny ISIS freedom of maneuver and the ability to attack at will.”
― Jack Keane
“We should be robustly assisting the Free Syrian Army with equipment and also with training.”
― Jack Keane
“What did we want out of Iraq? We wanted a country that was stable and secure, that elected its own government, that was not going to be a threat to its neighbors and also was capable of protecting and defending itself. That was our objective in Iraq.”
― Jack Keane
“The only people that have ever fought ISIS in Syria is not the regime; it is the Free Syrian Army.”
― Jack Keane
“Fighting forces, particularly ground forces, have to operate on the basis of unit cohesion.”
― Jack Keane
“It’s not that I can’t be fooled, but I’m not fooled often.”
― Jack Keane
“United States and our allied partners need to wake up. ISIS is at war with us and civilization.”
― Jack Keane
“While conducting a conventional war in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has staged terrorist attacks on a global scale against the people from the countries who are fighting ISIS.”
― Jack Keane
“This radical Islam is a religious-based ideology. And you actually have to, when you deal with the ideology, you have to attack it on that basis.”
― Jack Keane
“The fact to the matter is, we never developed a comprehensive strategy to deal with radical Islam. And the 9/11 commission said one of the things we must do is develop a global alliance to combat it.”
― Jack Keane
“President-elect Trump wants to win them if you’re going to be involved in a war. I don’t think he wants to be involved in war, but when we are, he wants to win.”
― Jack Keane
“We must take all that territory away from ISIS.”
― Jack Keane
“The homegrown terrorists are the most significant because any fighter returning from Syria to the United States would likely be identified and detected by our intelligence and law enforcement agencies.”
― Jack Keane
“There are very few fighters in the ISIS organization in Iraq and Syria coming from the United States; most of them have either come from a region of the Middle East or from Europe.”
― Jack Keane
“The Arab Spring, nobody’s in the streets demonstrating for radical Islam; they’re in the streets with a window of democracy. They want our political reform, our social justice, and our economic opportunity.”
― Jack Keane
“Cyberespionage and cyberattack is exploding from our adversaries inside our country. We don’t seem capable of stopping it.”
― Jack Keane
“Rebuilding the military is something Putin will pay attention to.”
― Jack Keane
“If we have the intent to use the military only when needed, then that also becomes, then, therefore, a credible deterrent.”
― Jack Keane
“I have lots of concerns at working with Russia going against ISIS until we have agreements in terms of what Russia’s behavior is going to be.”
― Jack Keane
“Russia and China completely disagree with the international order that was established after World War II, and they’re trying to take it apart right before our eyes.”
― Jack Keane
“Radical Islam, it has grown into a global jihad.”
― Jack Keane
“I watched the Bush administration overreact to the Clinton administration, who believed they did too much nation building, sustaining other countries, and that’s why we never put the commitment on Afghanistan and Iraq that should have been in there under their policy leadership.”
― Jack Keane
“One of the banners I would put up in front of any American president and new administration is ‘Do not overreact to your predecessors’ policies.’”
― Jack Keane
“ISIS itself, it draws its central belief system from the Koran and from the writings of the Prophet Muhammad. That is undeniable. And it’s a medieval interpretation of it. It is a literal interpretation of it.”
― Jack Keane
“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.”
― Jack Keane
“Al Qaeda has overplayed their hand. What the al Qaeda do when they go into a town or village or a neighborhood inside a major city is they get a stranglehold on the people themselves. They force the men to wear beards and the women to be properly costumed and essentially completely covered up.”
― Jack Keane
“By the end of 2008, clearly, the al Qaeda and Sunni insurgency had been relatively stabilized. And in the al Qaeda’s mind, they were defeated. They actually said that in many of their transmissions that we were able to pick up. And the Shia militia, largely those trained by the Iranians in Basra and also in Sadr City, had been defeated.”
― Jack Keane
“Aircraft are always going to be something that terrorists are interested in because you bring down an airliner, you have drawn the world’s attention.”
― Jack Keane
“The issue with Syria, I think for many of us, has always been about Iran. This is an anchor point for them in terms of regional domination. It means a lot to them. They are all in here.”
― Jack Keane
“If Assad continues to conduct strikes against the Free Syrian Army at will, it would be very difficult for them to have any success against ISIS.”
― Jack Keane
“Here’s the problem the Free Syrian Army has. They really want to topple the regime in Damascus, and this is where most of the fight takes place, between Aleppo and Damascus for the Free Syrian Army.”
― Jack Keane
“Putin has put Russia on a path to be a world power with global influence.”
― Jack Keane
“Historically, aggression unanswered has led to more aggression.”
― Jack Keane
“When you had thugs and bullies and killers imposing their will on their own people or other people – if you don’t respond to it, it just keeps coming because they’re encouraged by their own success.”
― Jack Keane
“Frankly, our adversaries are emboldened by the lack of American leadership in the world, and our friends and our allies, they have lost trust in us.”
― Jack Keane
“The thing I have in common with Donald Trump is, about a dozen years ago, we got a ‘Man of the Year’ award in New York City, the Hotel Plaza, from the USO.”
― Jack Keane
“The military executes policy decisions.”
― Jack Keane
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