Robert Gates

in some cases the gap between me and an action officer may be as high as 30 layers

this results in a bureaucracy which has the fine motor skills of a dinosaur

bureaucracy which has the fine motor skills of a dinosaur.

I expect to continue to conduct training, advising, and assisting activities and joint counterterrorism operations.

If you cut the defense budget by 10 percent, which would be catastrophic in terms of force structure, that's $55 billion out of a $1.4 trillion deficit.

It is vitally important to protect the military modernization accounts.

Frankly, I think that we have often not done a very good job of listening to President Karzai.

Through the support of the Congress and our nation, these young men and women will prevail in the current conflicts.

the American people are going to become increasingly skeptical about this alliance if the United States has to bear three quarters of the burden.

We are not in the business of nation building. What we are trying to do is build the Afghan National Security Forces to the point where they have the ability to defend that country.

What kind of a signal do you want to send the rest of the world, in terms of America's role in the world?

this modernization project is, in my view, both from a security and a political standpoint, really important.

Congress is a co-equal branch of government that, under the Constitution, raises armies and provides for navies, and now air forces.

Clearly, Pakistan is clearly a very strong ally of the United States in this.

Most governments lie to each other. That's the way business gets done.

That's the real world that we deal with.

I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the President's budget request for fiscal year 2012.

I think one thing where the Congress could make a contribution is that, I know that the Congress has a variety of parliamentary exchanges with European legislatures.

And sometimes, they send people to spy on us. And they're our close allies.

This is not a war without end. The Lisbon Summit has made clear that the transfer to Afghan security responsibility and leadership will be complete not later than the end of 2014.

The sacrifices our troops are willing to endure to protect this country is nothing short of amazing.

At a televised speech in NATO, outgoing U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates criticized their lies, calling it fully equipped to deal with challenges and blasting member countries for what he said were shortages in military spending and…

At his farewell speech in NATO, outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized the alliance, calling it poorly equipped to deal with challenges and blasting member countries for what he said were shortages in military spending and…

If you guys and everybody keeps the pressure on, we can hang onto everything we've gained over the last year to 18 months, we can expand the security bubble beyond that.

Pakistan is clearly a very strong ally of the United States in this.