Balance Quote by James G. Stavridis

I don't know how you defeat an insurgency unless you have some handle on the number of people that you are facing.

— John McCain

You can't succeed in beating the insurgents unless you can convince the people that they can be protected.

— Rand Beers

The most stupid mistake a counter-insurgency operation can make is alienating the population. If you alienate the population, you're finished.

— Meles Zenawi

“Military operations alone cannot defeat an insurgency because only economic development and political action can address most sources of disaffection. If military operations are…

— H.R. McMaster

Counter-insurgency warfare is not a simple thing... it's not as simple as, like, good guys versus bad guys. It is a mess.

— Chelsea Manning

I do not believe that a counterterrorism strategy all by itself, without a sufficient level of counterinsurgency, will work.

— Rahm Emanuel

I never call it an insurgency. I call it terrorism.

— Hamid Karzai

There are some ideas that will translate from Iraq to Afghanistan and there are many that will not. The first lesson of counterinsurgency, in…

— David Petraeus

Counterinsurgencies are a political initiative with a military component. They require the regime in power to counter the insurgents with better governance.

— Jake Auchincloss

Offensive operations and hunting down the enemy is an integral part of any counterinsurgency approach.

— H. R. McMaster

Our strategy in going after this army is very simple. First we are going to cut it off, and then we are going to…

— Colin Powell

What is needed [to combat terrorism], in my view, is resolve, not retreat; courage, not concession. Rather than thinking in terms of an exit…

— Donald Rumsfeld