German Politician Quotes in War Machine (2017)

[Glen is briefing government officials on the mission in a conference room in Berlin, talking about counterinsurgency]

Gen. Glen McMahon: [to an audience member with her hand up] Yes ma'am.

German Politician: [with heavy German accent] General, the US invaded Afghanistan because of the Al-Qaeda attacks on September 11th. This is correct, yes?

Gen. Glen McMahon: Uh, yeah.

German Politician: You have been speaking to us now for 45 minutes.

[Someone in the back says "Lauter bitte"]

Gen. Glen McMahon: Oh, uh, where is the- uh... Oh thank you.

German Politician: [takes the microphone] Thank you.

[Says something in German to someone off screen, then turns to Glen]

German Politician: You have been speaking to us now for 45 minutes, and yet in all of that time, you have only mentioned Al-Qaeda once.

[Scott Cullen scoffs and takes out his pen]

German Politician: Your own vice president has advocated a much smaller and simpler counter-terrorism approach to incapacitate what is estimated to be little more than 100 Al-Qaeda fighters that still remain in Afghanistan to refocus on what it was that started this was in the first place.

Gen. Glen McMahon: Ah!

German Politician: [interrupting Glen] Your analysis of the insurgency there suggests to me that there is no monolithic Taliban. You are spread over the entire country. You are fighting 1,000 separate battles with locals whose principal ideological position would seem to be simply that they don't want foreign soldiers in their village, and that, General, you must know, is a war you will *never* win.