“If peace should break out, what are we going to do with all these weapons?” -Leslie Aspin, U.S. Congressman (D-WI) on McNeil-Lehrer News Hour, July 24, 1989. Les went on to be Defense Secretary in Clinton’s first term.
“You have a lot of support right now, but once you get a lot of casualties, this thing is going to change.” -George Ball, U.S. Undersecretary of State. Statment about Vietnam to LBJ, 1963.
“The only way to save our empires from the encroaching of the people is to engage in war, and thus substitute national passions for social aspirations.” -Catherine II (the Great) in a moment of total clarity.
“You must understand that Americans are a warrior nation.” -Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Speech to Arab leaders, September 1990.
“By God, you can’t fight a war unless the people support it.” -Edmund S. Muskie, 1968.
“First commit the nation, then commit the troops. Don’t send men off to die if a country’s not committed.” -H. Ross Perot, 1988.
“If we are going to put lives at risk, we do that far better as one nation than one man.” – Sen. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., argument against the War Powers Act, 1987.
“All wars are popular for the first thirty days.” -Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Israel still has almost two weeks.
“Victory is the main object of war. If this is long delayed, weapons are blunted and morale is depressed. For there has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.” -Sun-tzu (c.400 BCE)
“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.”- Alexis de Toqueville, 1835.
“War is an orgy of money, just as it is an orgy of blood.”- Henry Ford, 1924.
