You can't have force structure without proper training, without proper equipment, without proper leadership, without proper funding to conduct exercises and perform maintenance.
The pace of change and the speed of war has greatly accelerated.
We have a strong tradition in our country of senior leaders being apolitical, nonpartisan.
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.
It's something I take very seriously as a commander: the lives of our young men and women.
If we're going to grow capacity, you need to do it in a way where it is meaningful capability.
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.
In my judgment, us assisting the Chinese military in advancing technologically is not in U.S. national interests.
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.
My sense is that General Kayani recognises that a stable and secure Afghanistan is in the best interests of Pakistan.
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.
All the nations that are adjacent to Afghanistan have a vested interest in the future stability and security of Afghanistan.
When you have to make a choice between capacity and capability, I would go with capability.
I'm an implementer of policy, not a maker of policy.
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.
Generally, Sunday talk shows talk about policy, and I don't address policy.
Competition doesn't have to be conflict.
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 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.
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.
