President Obama has said that our aspirations should be realistic. We are not going to turn one of the poorest countries in the world, that was plunged into 30 years of war, into an advanced, industrialized, Western-style democracy. What we want to achieve is Afghanistan's capacity to secure and govern itself.
David PetraeusThere [in Afghanistan] is also a growing insurgency threat from al-Qaida, the Taliban and other extremist elements, some of which comes from the tribal areas of Pakistan, as well as from the Northwest Frontier province and Baluchistan.
David PetraeusThe Islamic State fighters in Mosul are dead men walking and I think they increasingly know it.
David PetraeusIraq has gone from being on the brink to being on the mend, and it clearly has some big advantages.
David PetraeusThis cannot be the United States being the air force for Shia militias, or a Shia on Sunni Arab fight.
David Petraeus