“The mythology of the Reagan presidency is that he induced the collapse of the Soviet Union by luring it into unsustainable military spending and wars: should there come a point when we think about applying that lesson to ourselves?” ThinkingShouldWarMilitaryLessonsUnionsSpendingMythologySovietCollapsePresidencySoviet UnionMilitary Spending Author:Glenn Greenwald
“This is the true lesson of our history: war, preparation for war, and foreign military interventions have served for the most part not to protect us, as we are constantly told, but rather to sap our economic vitality and undermine our civil and economic liberties.” WarLibertyEconomicMilitaryLessonsProtectPreparationVitalityInterventionSapMilitary Intervention Author:Robert Higgs
“The question's whether or not there's an American interest in the Civil War [in Syria]. The question is whether or not a military strike on [Bashar] Assad will cause him to be encouraged to use more weapons or discouraged. It's easy enough to say - and the president [Barack Obama] says though this will teach him a lesson - but his military strike is intended not to target him individually, not to bring about regime change.” WarEnoughUseCausesEasyPresidentInterestTeachMilitaryLessonsWeaponsStrikesBarackCivil WarTargetRegimesSyriaDiscouragedPresident Barack ObamaAssadBe EncouragedRegime Change Author:Rand Paul
“American imperialism has suffered a stunning defeat in Indochina. But the same forces are engaged In another war against a much less resilient enemy, the American people. Here, the prospects for success are much greater. The battleground is ideological, not military. At stake are the lessons to be drawn from the American war in Indochina; the outcome will determine the course and character of new imperial ventures.” PeopleWarCharacterCoursesForceEnemyGreaterMilitaryLessonsDefeatDetermineOutcomesEngagedStakesVentureImperialismIdeologicalResilientProspectsStunningBattlegroundAmerican ImperialismAmerican WarIndochina Author:Noam Chomsky
“One of the lessons learned during the Vietnam War was that the depiction of wounded soldiers, of coffins stacked higher than their living guards, had a negative effect on the viewing public. The military in Iraq specifically banned the photographing of wounded soldiers and coffins, thus sanitizing this terrible and bloody conflict.” WarEffectsMilitaryHigherTerribleLessonsConflictNegativeSoldierIraqVietnamBloodyWoundedVietnam WarCoffinsBannedDepictionLesson LearnedWounded Soldier Author:Walter Dean Myers