If you read enough biography and history, you learn how people have dealt successfully or unsuccessfully with similar situations or patterns in the past. It doesn't give you a template of answers, but it does help you refine the questions you have to ask yourself.
There are a lot of self-imposed restrictions by people who somehow believe they have to fall in with a certain military cant. There was always a sense that we had to put things into words that would touch our troops' hearts, not just their heads.
Notifying the enemy in advance of our withdrawal dates or reassuring the enemy that we will not use certain capabilities like our ground forces should be avoided.
I've always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers, and I do better with that than I do with torture.
There are many people who do not know if the U.S. Army has 60,000 men or 6 million. They do not have a clue about that.
For whatever trauma came with service in tough circumstances, we should take what we learned - take our post-traumatic growth - and, like past generations coming home, bring our sharpened strengths to bear, bring our attitude of gratitude to bear.
So long as our Corps fields such Marines, America has nothing to fear from tyrants, be they Fascists, Communists or Tyrants with Medieval Ideology. For we serve in a Corps with no institutional confusion about our purpose: To fight! To fight well!
The example that America knows how to govern itself is one of the compelling aspects of our national security.
The U.S. military is not war weary. Our military draws strength from confronting our enemies when clear policy objectives are set and we are fully resourced for the fight.
Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!
The Corps is in good hands, and it's been a privilege to serve with the Leathernecks. Now it's time to go.
There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.
We all recognize that the Mid-east is dissolving into crises, and we know terrorism did not start with 9-11.
There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.
I would just say there is one misperception of our veterans, and that is they are somehow damaged goods. I don't buy it.
Demonstrate to the world, there is 'No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy' than a U.S. Marine.
The military can buy our diplomats some time.
To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase... Rather, it's displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen.
The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.
Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.
