Quotes By Leon Panetta

The United States was attacked on 9/11/12, and we know who attacked us.

After every major conflict - World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the fall of the Soviet Union - what happened was that we ultimately hollowed out the force, largely by doing deep across-the-board cuts.

I think soon after I became director of the CIA - President Obama pulled me into the Oval Office and said: 'Look, I just want you to know that your top priority is to go after Osama bin Laden.'

It doesn't make a lot of sense for us to borrow money from the Chinese to go give to another country for humanitarian aid. We ought to get the Chinese to take care of the people.

Throughout the 40 years I've been in Washington, I've always worked hard, particularly with regards to the budget issues.

The last thing I want to do is to make the mistakes of the past.

I don't usually comment on columnists' ideas of what I'm thinking. That's a dangerous game to get into.

When you cut a half-a-trillion dollars from the defense budget, it affects almost every area in the defense budget.

China is a major power in the Pacific and I think we are dealing with some common threats in that region: the whole issue of Korea and the stability of Korea, the whole issue of nuclear proliferation, the whole issue of providing free access to our ships that are operating in that area.

Rather than undermining the Palestinian Authority, it is in Israel's interests to strengthen it by... continuing to transfer Palestinian tax revenues and pursuing other avenues of cooperation.

These days, it takes only seconds - seconds - for a picture, a photo, to suddenly become an international headline.

Companies should be able to share specific threat information with the government without the prospect of lawsuits hanging over their head.

My whole life has been dedicated to public service.

Rising sea levels, severe draughts, the melting of the polar caps, the more frequent and devastating natural disasters all raise demand for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

I'm going to give people the benefit of the doubt.

I mean, the Taliban, my view is that they have been weakened. We have not seen them able to conduct any kind of organized attack to regain any territory that they've lost. We've seen levels of violence going down.

One demonstration of extremists, any more than a Ku Klux Klan demonstration in the United States, is not necessarily reflective of what the rest of the country feels.

An aggressor nation or extremist group could gain control of critical switches and derail passenger trains, or trains loaded with lethal chemicals.

I think what both Republicans and Democrats need to do and the leaders on both sides is to recognize that if sequester takes place, it would be disastrous for our national defense and very frankly for a lot of very important domestic programs. They have a responsibility to come together, find the money necessary to de-trigger sequester.

You know, one thing I've learned over 40 years is that when you have jobs in Washington, you do it day by day and that's what I'm doing as secretary of defense.

Iran is isolating itself from the rest of the world.

The fundamental premise is that neither the United States or the international community is going to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

Sexual assault has no place in the military. It is a violation of everything that the U.S. military stands for.

I don't think I should penalize people who were doing their duty.

Unfortunately these days, there is a hell of a lot that keeps me awake.

Well, the United States is a Pacific power. And we have always had a presence in the Pacific.

Al Qaeda still remains a threat.

You know, as director of the CIA, I got an awful lot of intelligence about all the horrible things that could go on across the world.

The United States has to have the capability to deal with more than one enemy at one time and be able to confront them and win.

I suddenly realized at the CIA that I had to make life-and-death decisions about people.