Norman Schwarzkopf

“It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.”

“For the entire first part of my career, I prided myself on being unflappable even in the most chaotic of circumstances.”

“Someone once asked, 'What is the difference between me and Saddam Hussein?' The answer is, 'I have a conscience and he doesn't.'”

“An awful lot has been written about my temper.”

“This gulf war syndrome thing is truly unfortunate, and I've met some of the vets who have this. These are my guys, and I feel terrible about it.”

“Carpet bombing tends to portray something that's totally indiscriminate, you know, en masse without regard to the target.”

“You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.”

“Tanks being deployed far forward is an indication of offensive action; tanks in depth is an indication of defensive action.”

“I may have made my reputation as a general in the Army, and I'm very proud of that. But I've always felt that I was more than one-dimensional. I'd like to think I'm a caring human being.”

“I get angry at a principle, not a person.”

“As young West Point cadets, our motto was 'duty, honor, country.' But it was in the field, from the rice paddies of Southeast Asia to the sands of the Middle East, that I learned that motto's fullest meaning. There I saw gallant young Americans of every race, creed and background fight, and sometimes die, for 'duty, honor, and their country.'”

“Had the United States and the United Kingdom gone on alone to capture Baghdad, under the provisions of the Geneva and Hague conventions we would have been considered occupying powers and therefore would have been responsible for all the costs of maintaining or restoring government, education and other services for the people of Iraq.”

“I'd like to think I'm a caring human being.”

“I am not one of these guys who is just going to waste American lives by throwing people needlessly in frontal attacks up against the enemy if I can avoid doing that.”