Mark Kimmitt Quotes (35 Quotes)

You had terrorist forces inside that cemetery firing at these Iraqi police stations ... using mortars from that location to try to kill Iraqi police ... ... We sent coalition forces against that cemetery to try to stop those rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

Day after day after day as we continue to get more evidence in ... it is pretty clear to us that what happened that night -- from after midnight to about 0400 -- that the activities that we saw on the ground were somewhat inconsistent with a wedding party,

Some areas are being turned over to this organization in a methodical matter. We understand a couple hundred of these prospective battalion members are going through a transfer of authority.

This is an enemy that cannot defeat us militarily, and in engagement after engagement we see the enemy breaking off, running away,

We just don't have enough information at this point to either assess blame, innocence or fault,

My army has been embarrassed by this. My army has been shamed by this. And on behalf of my army, I apologize for what those soldiers did to your citizens. It was reprehensible, and it was unacceptable,

If we can't hold ourselves up as an example of how to treat people with dignity and respect, we can't ask that other nations do that to our soldiers.

The negotiations, the discussions in the minds of the Marine commanders, continue to proceed, even though we did not see a tremendous number of weapons turned in today,

Like the capture of Saddam Hussein, it would bring the violence down significantly, but it wouldn't end it until we sort of eliminated his entire terrorist network and all the other terrorists that we know are operating inside this country.

It is expected that when foreign fighters come in from other countries, they come to this location, they change their clothes into typical Iraqi clothing sets.

I think it (military force) is always a possibility but my personal assessment is that it is a low possibility at this point.

Maybe there is a communications problem -- that we have not gotten the message out to the leadership it may be that there is no leadership or it may be that they have chosen to fight. If it is the latter, that's probably the wrong decision to be making,

it wouldn't end the violence.

You're going to need generals. You're going to need full colonels. You're going to need senior officers to command and control those organizations. Obviously, that is not a skill level that you can get in a series of weeks,

The first investigation, a criminal investigation from the Criminal Investigation Division, went after the individual conduct of the soldiers you see in those photographs, ... The second investigation, an administrative investigation, looked into command policies and procedures, and from that there appeared to be issues with military intelligence as well.

They realize they can't attack us and defeat us in a conventional sense. What they are trying to do is break our will. They are trying to capture the headlines. But these attacks -- with the exception of a seriously injured civilian -- have had frankly no tactical value and they're militarily insignificant,

Here, I'd like to use a popular Hollywood expression that cameras often lie.

If you wanted absolute security yesterday, you could have assured that and guaranteed that by canceling the festivities, ... We will not allow the terrorists to win. We will not be cowed.

It takes a very few number of people in the country to create the kind of damage we are seeing,

trying to intimidate through a barrel of a gun the vast majority of the people of Iraq.

The casualty figures that we have received from the enemy are somewhere about 10 times that amount, ... About civilian casualties, there is no authoritative figure out there.

That soldier said 'There are some things going on here that I can't live with'.

There may be civilians being used as human shields and at this point while it was dreadful, while it was unacceptable, while it was bestial, a pre-emptive attack into the city could have taken a bad situation and made it even worse.

I think there was a well-thought-out decision on part of the Marines that let's not rush headlong into there. There may be ambushes set up,

We still have some tough fighting ahead of us, ... It is not completely calm throughout this country.

There was a tremendous number of incriminating pocket litter, a lot of telephone numbers to foreign countries, Afghanistan, Sudan and a number of others.

Obviously, there are a number of courses of action that we'll take, ... but there will not be a security vacuum in that area at any time.

What we saw at the strike location, what we had prior to that attack and all of our post-strike intelligence continues to confirm that that was a safe house with a significant amount of ammunition being stored for whatever reason,

We have said for the last couple of weeks that we have seen the enemy starting to attack soft targets, Iraqi targets, rather than military targets, ... He is attempting to intimidate the people of Iraq. He will not succeed.

Our patience is not eternal, and if we don't start seeing some results of these discussions, some good-faith efforts on the part of the enemy, we are prepared to end the suspension of offensive operations and resume them,

We are not going to do a pell-mell rush into the city. It's going to be deliberate, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming. We will not rush in to make things worse. We will plan our way through this and we will reestablish control of that city and we will pacify that city.

the number of attacks on soft targets and civilians continues to rise ... we think this is a change on the part of the enemy.

It would not surprise us if there may be an attempt or two by perhaps some rogue groups that may not want to live up to this commitment, ... They may attempt to break this cease-fire. They will find that the coalition forces retain the right, the inherent right, to self-defense, and if they are fired at, they will respond.

We would be a little bit closer to achieving our goals against terrorism if we captured bin Laden. But let's not make the mistake to think that it would all be over,

There may have been some kind of celebration, ... Bad people have celebrations too. Bad people have parties too.