The pace of change and the speed of war has greatly accelerated.
— Joseph Dunford
The only one I can be sure will say something nice about me is my mother.
I want to make sure I have a system that allows me to know that the platoon sergeant and platoon commander aren't going to move at the same time when we come back from deployment. That sounds pretty simple, but it's really about data.
What we are doing in the Pacific is we're flying, operating, and sailing wherever international law allows, and the purpose of that is to demonstrate that we are standing up for those rules.
I think that it's very important that whoever is in office can trust the U.S. military to provide him with advice in private so that advice is not then used by somebody to try to criticize the president or try to influence the outcome.
When you have to make a choice between capacity and capability, I would go with capability.
All the nations that are adjacent to Afghanistan have a vested interest in the future stability and security of Afghanistan.
The work that Google is doing in China is indirectly benefiting the Chinese military. Indirect may not be a full characterization of the way it is. It's more of a direct benefit to the Chinese military.
There's no substitute for taking a clear-eyed look at the threats we'll face and asking how our force will adapt to meet those threats.
I think the morale of Taliban fighters has been affected adversely as a result of the lack of success.
We cannot keep gapping units where we need a good strong NCO or staff NCO and he's not there. They've got to have the right technical, the right leadership qualifications for the billet.
Competition doesn't have to be conflict.
We have a strong tradition in our country of senior leaders being apolitical, nonpartisan.
If we're going to grow capacity, you need to do it in a way where it is meaningful capability.
When you start to look at completing the development of a modern professional army, when you talk about maturing a democracy, when you talk about development and the economic conditions that have to be addressed, a decade is not too short a period of time to talk about.
In my judgment, us assisting the Chinese military in advancing technologically is not in U.S. national interests.
It's something I take very seriously as a commander: the lives of our young men and women.
From my perspective, to really be ready, we can't afford to have these deep degradations in readiness associated with personnel turbulence post-deployment.
I learned early in my career that if you see something that is not to standard or not within the law, and you ignore it, you've set a new standard, and it's lower.
Generally, Sunday talk shows talk about policy, and I don't address policy.
I'm an implementer of policy, not a maker of policy.
You can't have force structure without proper training, without proper equipment, without proper leadership, without proper funding to conduct exercises and perform maintenance.
My sense is that General Kayani recognises that a stable and secure Afghanistan is in the best interests of Pakistan.
It is not unimaginable to have military options to respond to North Korean nuclear capability. What's unimaginable to me is allowing a capability that would allow a nuclear weapon to land in Denver, Colorado. That's unimaginable to me. So my job will be to develop military options to make sure that doesn't happen.
