One of my favorite little sayings is, 'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. Robert M. Gates More Quotes by Robert M. Gates More Quotes From Robert M. Gates We should never lose sight of the ethos that has made the Marine Corps - where 'every Marine is a rifleman' - one of America's cherished institutions and one of the world's most feared and respected fighting forces Robert M. Gates marine fighting military And so the greatest of American triumphs... became a peculiarly joyless victory. We had won the Cold War, but there would be no parades. Robert M. Gates triumph victory war Some people have said, in so many words, that I'm kind of wooly-headed in believing that the Iranians would see not having nuclear weapons as more in their security interest than not. Robert M. Gates weapons believe people There is no international problem that can be addressed or solved without the engagement and leadership of the United States and everybody in the world knows that, its just fact of life. So sometimes I think we could conduct ourselves with a little more humility. Robert M. Gates engagement humility thinking I think, on the foreign policy side, that there is a need for disruption. We've had three administrations follow a pretty consistent policy toward North Korea, and it really hasn't gotten us anywhere. Robert M. Gates foreign-policy consistent thinking Development is a lot cheaper than sending soldiers. Robert M. Gates poverty development soldier One of the toughest battles in intelligence is combating conventional wisdom. Robert M. Gates conventional conventional-wisdom battle You know, if I were an - if I were a Taliban, I'd say, 'What did al-Qaida ever do for me except get me kicked out of Afghanistan?' Robert M. Gates taliban afghanistan als Congress is best viewed from a distance - the farther the better - because up close, it is truly ugly. Robert M. Gates ugly congress distance The reality is, the United States has global interests. Our defense budget is about the same as the defense budgets or military budgets of every other country in the world put together. Robert M. Gates military country reality I consider myself a Republican. Robert M. Gates republican It's clear the relationship between China and North Korea has hardly ever been worse. Kim Jong-un has never been to Beijing in his leadership. The Chinese press are saying some amazingly negative things about the north, and about Kim Jong-un. So - so they are weighing in, and they are bringing greater pressure. Whether it will be enough I think remains to be seen. Robert M. Gates chinese negative thinking I fired a lot of senior people myself and I think the key, when you feel compelled to remove a senior official, is essentially to have all your ducks in a row at the beginning. Have everybody understand what the rationale was. Robert M. Gates senior people thinking I don't know General Michael Flynn well, but it's hard for me to believe anybody would allow themselves to be blackmailed by the Russians because they didn't tell the full story or didn't tell the truth to the vice president of the United States who works 50 feet down the hall. Robert M. Gates telling-the-truth president believe I didn't think this whole business with Director James Comey was handled well. So there are sort of day-to-day aspects of the operation that I think are really troublesome. And I know that there are a lot of people in the country who have lots of issues with decisions that Donald Trump has making on the domestic side. Robert M. Gates country people thinking I think in the policies that have been followed since the president Donald Trump came into office, there really hasn't been any slack cut for the Russians. And I think one of the things that has surprised people has been that the relationship between the United States and Russia has in fact deteriorated since the election. Robert M. Gates cutting people thinking My one concern is that Hu Jintao may overestimate how much power China has in Pyongyang. They have - they do have influence, and they do have companies, and they do have economic relationships that could make life much more difficult in the north. Their balancing act is, "How much worse can we make it in the north without creating that which scares us more than anything, which is a collapse in the north." And then what happens to all those nuclear weapons. So they're going to work very hard to avoid that. Robert M. Gates economic scare influence On the foreign policy side, there's the risk of being too spontaneous and too disruptive where you end up doing more harm than damage. And figuring out that balance is where having strong people around you matters. Robert M. Gates risk strong people I think when it comes to the issues, I'd advise him to stick to the script. But, I mean, Donald Trump is going to have some very tough conversations and he's going to be talking about some very tough and complicated issues in all of the places that he visits.I think anytime a president does things that are humanizing, I think it's - it's good. Robert M. Gates president mean thinking I think that - that the disruptive nature, the tough talk on North Korea, the military deployments, sending the missile defense system to South Korea, I think these are all good things to have done. Robert M. Gates deployment military thinking
