I will always be an advocate in terms of wars of necessity. I am just much more cautious on wars of choice. Robert M. Gates advocatecautiouschoice Change image and share on social
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 budgetcountrydefense Change image and share on social
There's a lot of books out there about how you lead change in business, but I've certainly not seen any... on how you do that in public institutions. Robert M. Gates bookbusinesschange Change image and share on social
Well, what I've said is that the war in Iraq will always be clouded by how it began, which was a wrong premise, that there were in fact no weapons of nuclear - weapons of mass destruction. Robert M. Gates beginclouddestruction Change image and share on social
When I was the director of Central Intelligence in the early '90s, I tried to get the Air Force to partner with us in building drones. And they didn't want to, because they had no pilots. Robert M. Gates 90sairbuild Change image and share on social
I mean, when you get down to very low numbers of nuclear weapons, and you contemplate going to zero, how do you deal with the reality of that technology being available to almost any country that seeks to pursue it? And what conditions do you put in place? Robert M. Gates conditioncontemplatecountry share on social
If Poindexter made a comment to me like that, it would have been in the context of once the authorized program is approved there would be no point in having any of these private benefactors any longer. Robert M. Gates approveauthorizebenefactor share on social
Even when I was at CIA, I'd go to visit foreign leaders and I'd say, 'You know, I'm not a diplomat. I'm just an old CIA guy'... I said, 'If I wanted to be diplomatic, I'd have been a diplomat.' Robert M. Gates ciadiplomatdiplomatic Change image and share on social
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 addressconductengagement share on social
I've spent my entire adult life with the United States as a superpower and one that had no compunction about spending what it took to sustain that position. And it didn't have to look over its shoulder because our economy was so strong. Robert M. Gates adultcompunctioneconomy share on social
