#de

I remember serving in Vietnam in that war, and many of us at the major Lieutenant Colonel, colonel level were frustrated that no one in the U.S. wanted to debate it that way. ↗

— William Odom

#debate #frustrated #i #i remember #level

I've decided that the political context is such that the only way reform will finally come about in the Russian military is that the deterioration goes beyond the point to which these old generals can stand up there and resist it. ↗

— William Odom

#beyond #come #context #decided #deterioration

In fact, it struck me when we invaded last year that if we did it without European and East Asian support, we were risking losing our alliance in Europe in exchange for Iraq, and that is a very undesirable exchange. ↗

— William Odom

#asian #did #east #east asian #europe

It was, however, in the interest of Osama bin Laden for us to destroy a secular Arab leader; it was very much in the interest of the Iranians because they wanted revenge against Saddam Hussein for Iraq's invasion in 1980. ↗

— William Odom

#arab #because #bin #destroy #however

Once we destroyed the Saddam regime, we knew there was going to be a civil war. ↗

— William Odom

#civil war #destroyed #going #knew #once

So the idea that you could put Kurds, Shiite Arabs, and Sunni Arabs in a nice, liberal, federal system in Iraq in a short amount of time, six months or a year, boggles the mind. ↗

— William Odom

#arabs #could #federal #idea #iraq

The presidents I served under don't have anything to do with my politics. ↗

— William Odom

#i #politics #presidents #served #under

If you make an error, use it as a stepping stone to a new idea you might not have otherwise discovered. ↗

— Roger von Oech

#error #idea #make #might #new

While people out there on the spot certainly have to be held accountable for what they've done personally, the chain of command responsibility for this strikes me as just as important and should be dealt with. ↗

— William Odom

#certainly #chain #command #dealt #done

After the end of the Second World War it was a categorical imperative for us to declare that we renounced war forever in a central article of the new Constitution. ↗

— Kenzaburo Oe

#article #categorical #central #constitution #declare