“In a world of inhumanity, war and terrorism, American citizenship is a very precious possession.”
War is the failure of every other option. These quotes do not glorify conflict — they examine its causes, costs, and consequences through the eyes of soldiers, leaders, pacifists, and survivors who understand what is really at stake.
“The Berlin Wall wasn't the only barrier to fall after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Traditional barriers to the flow of money, trade, people and ideas also fell.”
“In a world of inhumanity, war and terrorism, American citizenship is a very precious possession.”
“It's never acceptable to target civilians. It violates the Geneva Accords, it violates the international law of war and it violates all principles of morality.”
“All oppression creates a state of war.”
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
“We are at war, and our security as a nation depends on winning that war.”
“An empire founded by war has to maintain itself by war.”
“Look at what President Kennedy managed to achieve during the Cuban missile crisis. If Bush had been president in 1962, do you think he would have avoided a nuclear war?”
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”
“You might hold an ethical position that it's wrong to lie, but if you have plans for a war in Iraq, and you want to keep them secret for practical reasons - to reduce casualties, perhaps - and someone asks you about those plans, you may need to lie for a 'good' outcome.”
“This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing-room.”
“As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.”
“The real theater of the sex war is the domestic hearth.”
“The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost.”
“Make no mistake, adolescence is a war. No one gets out unscathed.”
“War is not an adventure. It is a disease. It is like typhus.”