Anthony Zinni

I think that before you take on nation building in your mind's eye as to how it should be, you'd better have a clear understanding if this is doable and will work.

You have to give everybody another recourse as some means other than violence, no matter how distasteful it may be to have to deal with them and what they represent.

I think the Mogadishu effect, if I had to define it, is we need to be more careful where we decide to commit US forces, and for what reason, and to make a clear judgment as to what we can and can't do and whether it's in our interests, or we could afford the resources that it would take to make the situation right.

In the lead up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption.