John R. Allen Quotes

A collection of quotes by John R. Allen.

John R. Allen is a retired United States Marine Corps general and diplomat. Born on December 15, 1953, he served in numerous leadership positions throughout his military career, including as the Commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013. Allen also held key roles in the U.S. Department of Defense and played an active role in shaping international security policies. As a respected military leader and diplomat, he received several prestigious awards for his service and continues to contribute to academia and public policy discussions on global security.

And across Afghanistan, every single day, Afghan soldiers, A

And across Afghanistan, every single day, Afghan soldiers, Afghan police and ISAF troops are serving shoulder-to-shoulder in some very difficult situations. And our engagement with them, our shoulder-to-shoulder relationship with them, our conduct of operations with them every single day defines the real relationship.

There is a direct line relationship between what happened in

There is a direct line relationship between what happened in Afghanistan in the work up to 11 September 2001 and what we're doing in Afghanistan today.

Afghanistan is going to be here a long time, and what's crit

Afghanistan is going to be here a long time, and what's critical is that Afghanistan's relationship with its neighbors are, to the maximum extent they can be, constructive and operationally useful.

There are tens of thousands of interactions every single day

There are tens of thousands of interactions every single day across Afghanistan between the Afghan troops and International Security Assistance Force. On most of those, every single day we continue to deepen and broaden the relationship we seek.