Norman Schwarzkopf Quotes

War's a profanity because, let's face it, you've got two opposing sides trying to settle their differences by killing as many of each other as they can.

I hate war. Absolutely, I hate war.

An awful lot has been written about my temper.

Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion.

It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.

If it had been our intention to take Iraq, if it had been our intention to destroy the country, if it had been our intention to overrun the country, we could have done it unopposed.

I may have made my reputation as a general in the Army, and I'm very proud of that. But I've always felt that I was more than one-dimensional. I'd like to think I'm a caring human being.

But I would defy anyone to go back over the years and tell me anyone whose career I've ruined, anyone whom I've driven out of the service, anyone I've fired from a job.

Particularly when you're dealing with very high ranking people, you know, you have to get their attention, they are used to, by their rank, of having their own way and doing their own thing and when it's necessary to all work together on something, sometimes you have to hit the mule between the eyes with a two by four to get its attention.

Nobody can ever pin you down when you speculate.

Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.

When placed in command, take charge.

This gulf war syndrome thing is truly unfortunate, and I've met some of the vets who have this. These are my guys, and I feel terrible about it.

The Patriot missile is a point defence missile. Point defence means that you put the missile at a location to defend a very specific target such as an airfield, a supply dump or a headquarters.

First of all, Saddam did not win the war, even though he says he did, I mean, you know, that's a joke and everybody in the world knows it.

Unfortunately, if you've ever been in southern Georgia on the beaches in a lightning storm, if you're out there, you're in great, great danger, and you can be killed very, very quickly.

I get angry at a principle, not a person.

I believe that forgiving them is god's function, our job is to arrange the meeting.

The fun of fishing is catching 'em, not killing 'em.

I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44 individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of who wants to live, each of whom wants to do good.

War is a profane thing.

I do hunt, and I do fish, and I don't apologize to anybody for hunting and fishing.

Had we taken all of Iraq, we would have been like a dinosaur in the tar pit - we would still be there, and we, not the United Nations, would be bearing the costs of that occupation.

It's nice to feel that you have a purpose.

I am quite confident that in the foreseeable future armed conflict will not take the form of huge land armies facing each other across extended battle lines, as they did in World War I and World War II or, for that matter, as they would have if NATO had faced the Warsaw Pact on the field of battle.

Choose to win
Get mad, then get over it.

Moving into an unoccupied village when there's no opposition, I don't call that a military victory.

Judge your enemy based upon capabilities, not intent, you have to look at the enemy and really almost make a worst case call every time.

If we invade Iraq and the regime is very close to falling, I'm very, very concerned that the Iraqis will, in fact, use weapons of mass destruction.

Well, unfortunately, I have always regretted the fact that I have a temper, but I also have, you know, have great love and respect for all of the people that have worked for me. I think like everything else, this is one of those things that has been blown out of proportion.

You can't help but ... with 20/20 hindsight, go back and say, 'Look, had we done something different, we probably wouldn't be facing what we are facing today.'

Good generalship is the realisation that you've got to figure out how to accomplish your mission with the minimum loss of human life.

What is postwar Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shiites? That's a huge question, to my mind.

A great deal of the capability of an army is its dedication to its cause and its will to fight. You can have the best equipment in the world, you can have the largest numbers in the world, but, if you're not dedicated to your cause, if you don't have the will to fight, then, you are not going to have a very good army.

I'm not proud of killing, of being responsible for the death of a single person. I never will be.

A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers.

I've got to tell you what, the soldier doesn't fight very hard for a leader who is going to shoot him, okay, on his own whim. That's not what military leadership is all about.

I will confess to you that, you know, one of the statements that's been attributed to me that I'm sort of proud of is somebody said, you know, "What do we do about Osama bin Laden?" And they asked me, "Can we forgive him?" And I said, "Forgiveness is up to God. I just hope we hurry up the meeting." And that's the way I feel about him, really. [8 February 2003 show of Meet The Press, NBC News]

Tanks being deployed far forward is an indication of offensive action; tanks in depth is an indication of defensive action.

I am living proof that if you catch prostate cancer early, it can be reduced to a temporary inconvenience, and you can go back to a normal life.

If Saddam were to be replaced tomorrow he would probably be replaced with someone who's just as bad or worse than he is.

Had the United States and the United Kingdom gone on alone to capture Baghdad, under the provisions of the Geneva and Hague conventions we would have been considered occupying powers and therefore would have been responsible for all the costs of maintaining or restoring government, education and other services for the people of Iraq.

Hey, I'm not a politician. I'm a ham. I love to give speeches.

Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character.

You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.

Fear will keep you alive in a war. Fear will keep you alive in business. There's nothing wrong with fear.

He is neither a strategist nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general. Other than that he's a great military man.

There's no doubt in my mind that whichever commander ordered the blowing up of Kamisiyah did so in following the instructions that he had received.

When I fish, I stop thinking about anything else. But truth be told, if you want to declare victories, I can tell you the fish have won a lot more than I have. It's interesting that something with a brain the size of a fish's can outsmart us humans, who think we are el supremo.

I've managed to convince my wife that somewhere in the Bible it says, 'Man cannot have too many shotguns and fishing poles.'

To be an effective leader, you have to have a manipulative streak - you have to figure out the people working for you and give each tasks that will take advantage of his strength.

When the Normandy Invasion was planned, a very specific strategic objective was given, and that strategic objective was the basis upon which the plan for the Normandy Invasion was derived.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

I think any student of military strategy would tell you that in order to attack a position, you should have a ratio of approximately 3 to 1 in favor of the attacker.

I am an environmentalist, but I'm not a wacko environmentalist. I believe that mankind and nature can live side-by-side for the mutual benefit of both.

I do not want to be a pawn in a political campaign.