Let me be clear. I do not see training missions—training the armed forces of a state coming out of civil war or trying to redevelop or restructure itself—as problematic. In fact, I think they're very important. That extends not only to training their militaries, but also, if you take the model of NATO's Partnership for Peace, of training defence departments and those people. That's where the expertise of the military and civilian defence officials is vitally important. But that does not extend to the military getting involved in those things outside of its ambit and its expertise, notwithstanding that I have always been very skeptical that we should be in the nation-building business at all.
On March 1st, 2012. See this statement in context.