Eric Shinseki's Quotes

An army that fought and won a war decisively finds it even more difficult to undergo change.

I am an armor officer.

I grew up as a part of the team that helped to field M-1s and M-60-A3s to the army back in 1980s.

It's tough never being right.

More importantly, if you are in a position to hire, hire a veteran. They will be the best employees you have.

You don't get many do-overs in life.

I have spent a lifetime watching kids make mistakes because they were not trained or well led or properly motivated to do well. I never faulted the kids; rather, I saw opportunity to train, to motivate, to improve leadership - not to punish the individual.

In the army we do two things ever day. We train our soldiers and then we grow them into leaders, because frankly, we don't hire out. We grow our own leaders.

The magnificent army that fought in Desert Storm is a great army, and it still is a magnificent army today. But it was one we designed for the Cold War, and the Cold War has been over for ten years now.

Well, let's assume the world is linear. If we required a certain amount of troops per 25,000 population in the Balkans, if the world is not radically different, something of the same extent is going to be needed in Iraq.