Дональд Рамсфельд цитаты

„Сообщения о том, что что-то не произошло, мне неинтересны, так как мы все знаем, что существуют известные события, о которых нам известно, есть вещи, о которых мы не знаем. Мы также знаем, что есть вещи, о которых мы не знаем, другими словами, есть определенные вещи, которые нам неизвестны. Но есть также то, что является неизвестным и о чем мы не знаем, – что-то, о чем мы не знаем, знаем ли мы что-то об этом.“

—  Дональд Рамсфельд

„… есть известные известные — вещи, о которых мы знаем, что знаем их. Есть также известные неизвестные — вещи, о которых мы знаем, что не знаем. Но еще есть неизвестные неизвестные — это вещи, о которых мы не знаем, что не знаем их.“

—  Дональд Рамсфельд

„It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/10/22/sprj.irq.main/index.html
referring to the ongoing War on Terrorism
2000s

„Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, or vice versa.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

Department of Defense news briefing (12 February 2002)
Variant:
Now what is the message there? The message is that there are no "knowns." There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.
:It sounds like a riddle. It isn't a riddle. It is a very serious, important matter.
:There's another way to phrase that and that is that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It is basically saying the same thing in a different way. Simply because you do not have evidence that something exists does not mean that you have evidence that it doesn't exist. And yet almost always, when we make our threat assessments, when we look at the world, we end up basing it on the first two pieces of that puzzle, rather than all three.
:* Extending on his earlier comments in a press conference at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, Belgium (6 June 2002) http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2002/s020606g.htm
2000s

„We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat….“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

Interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News This Week, March 30, 2003
Контексте: We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.... I would also add, we saw from the air that there were dozens of trucks that went into that facility after the existence of it became public in the press and they moved things out. They dispersed them and took them away. So there may be nothing left. I don't know that. But it's way too soon to know. The exploitation is just starting.

„It recalls to mind the statement by Winston Churchill, something to the effect that: I have benefited greatly from criticism, and at no time have I suffered a lack thereof.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/08/AR2006110801579.html?nav=rss_politics
During the Nomination of Robert Gates for the next U.S. Secretary of Defense, November 8, 2006
2000s

„I suppose the implication of that is the president and the vice president and myself and Colin Powell just fell off a turnip truck to take these jobs.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

In response to Jeffrey Goldberg's question to comment on accusations that the "Jewish lobby" maneuvered the administration into war. The New Republic, October 8, 2007. http://www.tnr.com/toc/story.html?id=523b5134-8643-4f5e-a314-ac9b8a786b16&p=13
2000s

„As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time. Since the Iraq conflict began, the Army has been pressing ahead to produce the armor necessary at a rate that they believe -- it's a greatly expanded rate from what existed previously, but a rate that they believe is the rate that is all that can be accomplished at this moment.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

[Troops put Rumsfeld in the hot seat, http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/08/rumsfeld.kuwait/index.html, 2006-04-07, 2004-12-08, CNN]
Responding to the question "Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up armor our vehicles, and why don't we have those resources readily available to us?"
2000s

„I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

Interview with Steve Croft, Infinity CBS Radio Connect (14 November 2002) https://web.archive.org/web/20031217182208/http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2002/t11152002_t1114rum.html
2000s

„Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

"Rumsfeld's Rules" January 12, 1974 http://library.villanova.edu/vbl/bweb/rumsfeldsrules.pdf
1970s

„You and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase immediate threat. I didn't, the president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's what's happened.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

CBS Face the Nation (14 March 2004) http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040314-secdef0542.html; in response Thomas Friedman quoted his previous statement from a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee (10 September 2002) http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/US/HearingsPreparedstatements/hasc-091802.htm:
:: But no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
2000s

„The natural state of man is to want to be free. To have opportunities. To have choices.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

On Arab Spring, Rumsfeld, that he wasn't surprised by popular uprisings of Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/08/rumsfeld.interview/index.html March 9, 2011.
2010s

„Then there are three or four countries that have said they won't do anything. I believe Libya, Cuba and Germany are ones that have indicated they won't help in any respect.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

"Threats And Responses: Germany; Rumsfeld Faces Tense Greeting and Antiwar Rallies in Munich" by Thom Shanker, in The New York Times (8 February 2003) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/08/world/threats-responses-germany-rumsfeld-faces-tense-greeting-antiwar-rallies-munich.html
2000s

„I picked up a newspaper today and I couldn't believe it. I read eight headlines that talked about chaos, violence, unrest. And it just was Henny Penny -- "The sky is falling." I've never seen anything like it! And here is a country that's being liberated, here are people who are going from being repressed and held under the thumb of a vicious dictator, and they're free. And all this newspaper could do, with eight or 10 headlines, they showed a man bleeding, a civilian, who they claimed we had shot —one thing after another.
From the very beginning, we were convinced that we would succeed, and that means that that regime would end. And we were convinced that as we went from the end of that regime to something other than that regime, there would be a period of transition. And, you cannot do everything instantaneously; it's never been done, everything instantaneously. We did, however, recognize that there was at least a chance of catastrophic success, if you will, to reverse the phrase, that you could in a given place or places have a victory that occurred well before reasonable people might have expected it, and that we needed to be ready for that; we needed to be ready with medicine, with food, with water. And, we have been.
Freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

DOD news briefing following the fall of Baghdad (11 April 2003) http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030411-secdef0090.html

„After he saw what happened to Saddam Hussein, he (Gaddafi) did not want to be Saddam Hussein. He gave up his nuclear program.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

Rumsfeld doesn't support sending U.S. troops into Libya http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/08/rumsfeld.interview/index.html March 9, 2011.
2010s

„I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

Interview with the Washington Post (9 January 2002) http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2002/t02052002_t0109wp.html
2000s

„…it seems to me that it's up to all of us to try to tell the truth, to say what we know, to say what we don't know, and recognize that we're dealing with people that are perfectly willing to, to lie to the world to attempt to further their case and to the extent people lie of, ultimately they are caught lying and they lose their credibility and one would think it wouldn't take very long for that to happen dealing with people like this.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

From the 2004 documentary film Control Room
2000s

„Pieces of intelligence, scraps of intelligence…you run down leads and you run down leads, and you hope that sometimes it works.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

DoD News Briefing May 01, 2002 http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=3424
2000s

„Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.“

—  Donald Rumsfeld

"Rumsfeld's Rules" January 12, 1974 http://library.villanova.edu/vbl/bweb/rumsfeldsrules.pdf
1970s