“I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table.”
George Bush on the continuing possibility of military action against Iran
“Over 1,400 Americans are dead, 11,000 are wounded and we’ve spent over $100 billion. Is that a sacrifice worth what we’re getting?”
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel on the Iraq war
“If Iran wanted, it could make Iraq hell for the United States.”
Hamid al-Bayati Iraq’s deputy foreign minister
“We’re hearing things from possible recruits like, ‘Well let’s wait and see how this thing settles out in Iraq’. For the year ahead it’s going to be tough to meet our goal.”
Lieutenant General Franklin L Hagenbeck, US army personnel chief on recruitment problems for the US armed forces
“Our policies in the Middle East fuel Islamic resentment.”
Lowell E Jacoby director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency
“The fragile nation could easily tumble back into chaos.”
From a UN report on development in Afghanistan
“They know what they are doing. I keep telling people that the resistance’s intelligence is much better than the government’s.”
Aiham Alsammarae, Iraqi electricity minister on the resistance