“In the mid to late nineteenth century, the gun manufacturers recognized that they had a limited market. Remember that this is a capitalist society, you've got to expand your market. They were selling guns to the military. That's a pretty limited market. What about all the rest of the people? So what started was all kinds of fantastic stories about Wyatt Earp and the gunmen and the Wild West, how exciting it was to have these guys with guns defending themselves against all sorts of things.” PeopleKindStoriesRememberGuyCenturyMilitaryLateGunExcitingWestSellingAll KindsFantasticCapitalistNineteenth CenturyWild WestGunmen Author:Noam Chomsky
“[With] military threats, you can see them actually, you can imagine it. People don't think about it enough. But if you think about it for a minute, you can see that a nuclear attack could be the end of everything.” PeopleIfsThinkingEndsEnoughImagineMinutesMilitaryThreatNuclear Author:Noam Chomsky
“I think America should amass a strategy for success, and set out the milestones. We need to help the Iraqis get their democracy up and running, we've got to help them train their military and police and security people, and we've got to start moving out.” PeopleThinkingNeedsShouldHelpingRunningAmericaMovingDemocracySecurityMilitaryPoliceStrategyTrainMilestoneMoving Out Author:Barbara Boxer
“Chairman Mao creatively applied Marxism-Leninism to every aspect of the Chinese revolution, and he had creative views on philosophy, political science, military science, literature and art, and so on. Unfortunately, in the evening of his life, particularly during the "Cultural Revolution", he made mistakes - and they were not minor ones - which brought many misfortunes upon our Party, our state and our people.” PeopleArtMadeStatesPhilosophyPoliticalLiteratureViewsPartyMistakeCreativeMilitaryRevolutionAspectEveningChineseMisfortunesMinorsMarxismPolitical ScienceChairmanMade A MistakeMaoChairman MaoMarxism LeninismChinese RevolutionLiterature And Art Author:Deng Xiaoping
“The British Labour Party has always had a very strong "Atlanticist component," with an obsequiousness to American policies, and Blair represents this wing. He's clearly obsessed with Iraq. He has to be because the overwhelming majority of the people of Britain oppose a military action. I've never known a situation like it.” PeopleActionStrongPartySituationKnownMilitaryPolicyMajorityWingsIraqBritishObsessedBritainLabourOverwhelmingVery StrongComponentsBlairLabour PartyMilitary ActionObsequiousness Author:John Pilger
“I think there's a need for the participation of the military for the stability of the transformation period of Burma. If the military and the people do unite together for the sake of our country, we can reach the development of our country in a very short time.” PeopleIfsThinkingNeedsCountryTogetherMilitaryDevelopmentPeriodsTransformationSakeOur CountryStabilityParticipationShort TimeBurma Author:Aung San Suu Kyi
“Reagan said that government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem. And he was going to dismantle that government. Well, long story short, he failed to do that. He built up the military to a much greater status, more people in it, and actually more employees after the end of the Reagan administration. And, to achieve his objectives, he did some of the very same things that Trump is doing to achieve his. What Ronald Reagan really wanted to dismantle was the welfare state. And he had limited success in doing that.” PeopleWellsLongSaidEndsStatesStoriesProblemGovernmentWantedGreaterAchieveMilitaryTrumpSolutionsBuiltObjectivesAdministrationWelfareEmployeeWelfare StateLong Story Author:Brian Balogh
“We need to look at [Osama bin Laden killing ] as a great victory for the American military and intelligence personnel and for the American people. A lot of bravery and courage displayed by those folks on behalf of all of us. It's also a good day for the administration. I think President [Barack] Obama and his national security team acted on the intelligence when it came in, and they deserve a lot of credit, too.” PeopleThinkingNeedsLooksPresidentTeamSecurityMilitaryVictoryDeserveBraveryKillingFolksCreditAdministrationBarackNational SecurityBehalfGood DayBin LadenPresident Barack ObamaOsama Bin LadenPersonnelBravery And CourageAmerican MilitaryGreat Victory Author:Sarah Palin
“It's very hard to feel the difficulties that the military goes through. It's very hard to feel the difficulties of military families, unless you're in that environment. And sometimes you have to force yourself to try and put yourself in other people's sort of shoes and environment to get the sense of that.” PeopleFeelsTryingSometimesHardForceEnvironmentMilitaryDifficultyShoesMilitary Family Author:Jon Stewart
“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
“A lot of military people just take orders, and there is a place for that. But SEALs think for themselves from day one. That way, when something happens - a kid runs out of a room, a woman is held as a human shield - they can make those decisions on the fly. We always say: "Improvise, adapt and overcome."” PeopleThinkingWayHumansHappensRunningKidsOrderDecisionRoomsMilitaryOvercomingThings HappenShieldsSeals Author:Howard E. Wasdin
“I'm so thankful a significant majority of Americans are saying no to military intervention. We've got to find a solution that will in the end be one that makes Syria a better country, a better people.” PeopleEndsCountryMilitarySolutionsMajoritySignificantSyriaInterventionSaying NoMilitary Intervention Author:Desmond Tutu
“I have been around military technology people a lot because of my role in virtual reality I've seen weapons from conception to implementation. And there is an extraordinary gadget lust that drives the military. So it's possible that war is just the ultimate expression of creativity.” PeopleHas BeensWarRealityRolesCreativityTechnologyMilitaryExpressionWeaponsUltimateExtraordinaryLustConceptionVirtual RealityGadgetsImplementation Author:Jaron Lanier
“I would argue that among musicians who work in technology today, the level of technological sophistication probably exceeds that of military programs, to be blunt. They are just really smart people attracted to making strange new sounds.” PeopleTodaySoundLevelsTechnologyMilitaryStrangeMusicianSmartProgramArguingTechnologicalExceedBluntSmart PeopleSophisticationReally Smart Author:Jaron Lanier
“The collective shortfall of the 3.08 billion people (47 percent of world population) who, in 2005, lived below $2.50 per day was $507 billion per annum, which indeed comes to about two-thirds of the present US military budget. This gives us a rough sense of how much the eradication of poverty would cost.” PeopleWorldGivingTwoPovertyMilitaryCostPercentThirdsPopulationBillionsBudgetsCollectivesRoughWorld PopulationUs MilitaryMilitary Budget Author:Thomas Pogge
“How do we explain for example the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea Conakry? Those very powers that swindled and occupied them, in the face of the serious situation of social emergency, have not even had the capacity to send doctors there. In some cases they have sent in militaries instead because that is what they are compelled to do. They have had to send military to do it because they do not even have any doctors with the willingness to risk their lives in order to help those people that are precisely paying for the consequences of years of colonization.” PeopleYearsHelpingFacesOrderSocialSituationCasesRiskMilitaryExampleSeriousConsequenceCapacityDoctorsWillingnessCompelledEmergenciesEpidemicsColonizationGuineaSierraEbolaSierra Leone Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“Communism is an aspiration, an aspiration is an ideal, a dream, a longing of something that would be perfect, but hard to build because it has to clash with human nature and against the egotism of humans and the egotism of the elites which usually try to guarantee their own interests above those of their nations and of their own people. But they are the ones that prevail because they have the economic power, the political power and the military power.” PeopleTryingHumansHardDreamWould BePoliticalNationsInterestPerfectEconomicMilitaryHuman NatureIdealsLongingCommunismAspirationGuaranteesElitesEgotismClashPolitical PowerEconomic PowerMilitary Power Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“We know the potentiality of Nigeria and the talent and the resources and to see it having no effect on the lives of the people, on the infrastructure, the roads, the hospitals, the schools, seeing no effect of these talents, these recourses is very frustrating. But it is the result of the damage that was done to the country, especially during the various military regimes.” PeopleKnowsCountryDoneSchoolResultsSeeingEffectsTalentMilitaryResourcesVariousDamageHospitalsRegimesFrustratingInfrastructureNigeriaRecourse Author:Chinua Achebe
“We seem to know that international wars tend not to stop with their formal "peace treaties." We seem not to have thought enough about the difference between the large official events of political and military history and their overflow both into recognized effects and into the lives of unofficial people who suffer them.” PeopleKnowsWarEnoughSeemsPoliticalSufferingDifferencesEffectsMilitaryEventsInternationalOfficialsFormalTreatiesOverflowMilitary HistoryPeace Treaties Author:Wendell Berry
“In Burma, economic engagement enriches the regime, as the economy is controlled by the regime. Economic engagement benefits this elite, not ordinary people. The money is spent on the military, stolen by the elite.” PeopleEconomyEconomicMilitaryBenefitsOrdinaryControlledEngagementRegimesElitesStolenOrdinary PeopleBurma Author:Zoya Phan
“The violence stems from injustice, because people feel they have been treated unfairly in the Middle East, whether that means military occupation, starvation under U.N. sanctions, whether it means that they have a dictatorship imposed on them, propped up by the West. This is why people turn to violence, because they have no other avenue left.” PeopleMeanViolenceMilitaryInjusticeDictatorshipStem Author:Robert Fisk
“Inside the White House there were always extreme amounts of doubt about whether they should be escalating in Afghanistan. In fact, most of the president's advisers said, "This is probably not going to work." A lot of people in the military said, "This is probably not going to work." If the thumbnail version of the Iraq war was that George W.Bush lied about mass destruction weapons, the thumbnail version of Barack Obama's war in Afghanistan is that the generals pushed him into a war he didn't want to fight.” PeopleWarFightingHouseDoubtMilitaryDestructionBarackAfghanistanGoing To WorkLiedIraq War Author:Michael Hastings
“We also need to look at precedent before making these decisions. Instead of listening to Muammar Qaddafi's rhetoric, we should look at how he's behaved. The fact is he's been making concessions recently. He gave up his nuclear weapons. He allowed hundreds of Americans to evacuate Tripoli. Did he crack down on his people who revolted? Yes, but that's not so unusual. For me, it's always a failure of diplomacy. Our willingness to immediately turn to a military solution is disturbing.” PeopleDecisionMilitaryListeningSolutionsWillingnessUnusualNuclear WeaponsRhetoricDiplomacyGave Up Author:Michael Hastings
“As the wealthiest country with all the blessings that we have, do we have an obligation to help the outside world? I think we do, as we have an obligation to help everyone within our own borders. The problem is that this automatically gets translated into: "What's the point of having a huge military if we can't bomb people?" That's the problem that I have. Our foreign policy is essentially our defense policy.” PeopleThinkingWorldCountryHelpingProblemMilitaryPolicyBlessingObligationForeign Policy Author:Michael Hastings
“My impression of Donald Trump, just having been around him. I don't think Trump needs a lot of advisers. I don't think Trump's sitting up there not knowing what he thinks, not knowing what he thinks is best. I don't think that as these things come and go, he runs around, "What do you think I should do?" I think what happens is he makes up his mind he wants to do something and then asks people how's the best way to make it happen. He goes and talks to the military.” PeopleThinkingMindRunningMilitaryImpression Author:Rush Limbaugh
“America has everything most countries envy. A Constitution which is the treasure of mankind, a strong military, natural resources of every kind. Above all, as Tocqueville said, a good people, which is what makes us great.” PeopleKindCountryStrongNaturalMankindMilitaryConstitutionEnvyGood PeopleNatural Resources Author:John F. Kerry
“The more we try to fix the security situation, the more we will drive these people, particularly the Pashtun, into implacable opposition. And whether the military solution is more bombing from Predators or from F-16s or more special forces on the ground, you know, attacking villages and inadvertently killing lots of civilians, it doesn't matter. As long as security comes first, the mission will fail because these people are sick and tired of a government that's oppressing them and a foreigner who's killing them.” PeopleTryingLongSituationFailingSpecialSecurityMilitarySolutionsSickTiredKillingPredator Author:Pierre Sprey
“Everyone from Adam Smith, John Stewart Mill, they were all reforms. What they wanted to reform was getting rid of this parasitic landlord class that had conquered England in 1066 and it's the heirs of the military warlords who ended up taking the land and making everybody pay them and all of their descendants just for having been conquered. You can see the carry-over of this today. The rent that people have to pay, the money they have to pay the banks instead of having a public option. That's the price they still have to pay for being conquered.” PeopleTodayMilitaryLandlord Author:Michael Hudson
“I hope we can all agree - military might has been one of the ways to deter people from doing bad things. Now, that can take on any number of different aspects, but on this one, I think that we're getting a little too far ahead of ourselves that Trump is changing policy and making policy in a way that he did not intend.” PeopleThinkingDifferentMilitaryPolicyAgree Author:Kellyanne Conway
“I think we have not done a good job of explaining to people in rural America what is actually happening, number one. And, number two, we're not expressing appreciation and acknowledging the contribution that rural America makes. Where does your food come from? Where does the water come from? Where does the energy feedstock come from? It all comes from rural areas. Where does your military come from? Nearly 35 to 40 percent of the military is from 15 percent of America's population living in rural America. It makes a tremendous contribution to this country. It just isn't recognized.” PeopleThinkingCountryDoneEnergyWaterMilitaryAppreciationGood Job Author:Tom Vilsack
“Compare and contrast: Donald Trump is going out thanking the voters who supported him. You look at his cabinet picks. They are not donors. These three military guys are not being chosen because they're being paid back for donating to Trump. He's picking them because they're the best. And what's Hillary Clinton doing? She is thanking the money people. She's not thanking supporters. She's not thanking people who believed in her for her ideas and substance and her personally.” PeopleGuyMilitaryClintonChosenCompareContrastSupporter Author:Rush Limbaugh
“The purpose of any military is to kill people and break things. It's not to advance anybody's social agenda. It's not a laboratory for the left's social ideas or playgrounds. It is to kill people and break things, and the second rule is that the aggressor in any conflict sets the rules. And if they violate an existing rule book, then so be it. The aggressor sets the rules, and right now, Putin is setting the rules.” PeopleBookPurposeBreakMilitaryConflictLaboratory Author:Rush Limbaugh
“Optimism is in short supply in the Middle East, but what I do think is the administration needs to step up its act. We should use military strikes against ISIS when they threaten the Shia areas or Baghdad. We need to accelerate very rapidly, and we have ways to do it, aid to the Syrians, and we need to be more active, with results, not simply inputs. That is absolutely important right now, because people are questioning our will, not our capabilities.” PeopleThinkingImportantMilitaryOptimismAidsCapabilityQuestioningStep Up Author:James Franklin Jeffrey
“Do you realize how many people of this country have been educated, have grown up, who have been taught that, yeah, we're at risk and there's a lot of people that want to blow us up and don't like us. But we are to blame. That's what they've been taught. We are to blame, 'cause there was slavery, because we've stolen all these goods and resources from other countries. We have imposed our way of life on them! We've sent our military around, and we've conducted wars on their territory and so forth.” PeopleWarCountryRealizingRiskMilitaryBlameSlaveryBlowEducated Author:Rush Limbaugh
“I would like to see more of a democratic opening on the island of Cuba, things like, I don't know, free press, stop putting people in jail because they do not agree with you politically, stop helping countries like North Korea evade U.N. sanctions, don't invite the Russians to open a military base 90 miles from our shores, allow independent political parties to be able to function.” PeopleCountryHelpingPoliticalPartyMilitaryIndependentAgreeDemocraticPolitical PartiesNorth Korea Author:Marco Rubio
“It's unfortunate we live in a society where "gay" is an insult. To some of these boys, who are from really red states and have families with military history, to be called gay is the worst thing imaginable, and that's used against them. It's really interesting that these are the people drawn into the tickling world. If the people drawn into competitive endurance tickling, even if they were straight, came from liberal, accepting backgrounds, the backlash of calling them gay wouldn't be a problem. But it's a problem because of where these people are from. That's really fascinating to me.” PeopleWorldProblemInterestingAcceptingBoysWorstMilitaryGayInsultEnduranceUnfortunateReally Interesting Author:David Farrier
“The power paradox is that we gain power by advancing the welfare of other people and yet when we feel powerful, it turns us into impulsive sociopaths and we lose those very skills. If you're in the military, you gain power by forging strong ties in your comrades. And then the irony is that once we feel powerful and we are taken with our own success, we ignore the skills that got us power in the first place.” PeopleStrongPowerfulTakenMilitaryIronyWelfareParadoxComradeSociopathImpulsive Author:Dacher Keltner
“As a military brat, it is always an honor when I meet someone from the Armed Services. It is always nice to hear that often Aliens is played for them before going on a mission. It's nice to know that I was a small part of something that is so important to the people that serve our country.” PeopleImportantCountryNiceMilitaryHonorAliensBrat Author:Carrie Henn
“Haven't you heard the Democrats disparage people who sign up? It's something I've never understood. Okay, you don't like the military, fine and dandy, but why impugn the people that sign up? They're signing up knowing full well they're volunteering. They're offering their lives, potentially. Why impugn 'em? Why go out...? Because it's an opportunity to criticize America; that's why. Because in the Democrat world, nobody would ever join the military. "Good Lord, we'd go to Yale - hell, we'd go to Dartmouth - before we go to the military!” PeopleWorldOpportunityLordHellMilitaryOkayDemocratCriticizeVolunteer Author:Rush Limbaugh
“Apart from a commendable determination to discomfit Trump and members of his inner circle (select military figures excepted, at least for now), journalism remains pretty much what it was prior to November 8th of last year: personalities built up only to be torn down; fads and novelties discovered, celebrated, then mocked; "extraordinary" stories of ordinary people granted 15 seconds of fame only to once again be consigned to oblivion - all served with a side dish of that day's quota of suffering, devastation, and carnage. These remain journalism's stock-in-trade.” PeopleSufferingMilitaryPersonalityFameDeterminationExtraordinaryJournalismGrantedTornOblivionOrdinary PeopleSelectNovemberCarnageCommendable Author:Andrew Bacevich
“We should never hesitate to use military force, and I will not, as president, in order to keep the American people safe. But we have to use our military wisely. And we did not use our military wisely in Iraq.” PeoplePresidentMilitary Author:Barack Obama
“America can't provide health care to people who need it. We can't invest in science and technology, which will determine whether or not we are going to be competitive in the long term. There has never been a country on Earth that saw its economy decline and yet maintained its military superiority.” PeopleLongCountryCareEarthTermTechnologyEconomyMilitaryDetermineHealth CareLong TermSuperiorityScience And Technology Author:Barack Obama
“Hosni Mubarak was the glue that held very leaderless and organic and very pluralistic mix of people together. Now that he's gone, there's a lot more debate and division about what happens next, which is healthy. We're essentially still under military dictatorship right now. The military rules the country. It can issue laws by decree.” PeopleCountryTogetherMilitaryHealthyDebateDictatorship Author:Sharif Abdel Kouddous
“I am not going to say that people who enter the military are doing anything wrong. As I often jokingly tell my students, "Many of my best of friends are in the military!" But it's true. Perhaps not in the Aristotelian sense of the word "friendship" but on so many other levels that matter, we are truly friends.” PeopleMilitaryStudents Author:Tripp York
“There's always something impressive when people are giving themselves to their job absolutely. The military thing - I was conscious that their routine, their way of living is so opposite to mine. In some ways their life seemed intolerable to me. But, mine would be to them, too, because this strangely laissez-faire life of mine actually comes with its obligations as well.” PeopleGivingMilitaryConsciousObligationImpressive Author:Geoff Dyer
“There's no military solution to North Korea's nuclear threats, forget it. Until somebody solves the part of the equation that shows me that ten million people in Seoul don't die in the first 30 minutes from conventional weapons, I don't know what you're talking about, there's no military solution here, they got us.” PeopleForgetMilitarySolutionsThreatShow MeForget ItNorth Korea Author:Stephen K. Bannon
“Because I didn't see war in Iraq through the partisan lens that seems to dominate a lot of the perspective today with Fox News on the one side and MSNBC on the other, I didn't see it as Democrats good, Republicans bad. I saw it as a situation where the United States is a force that engages in these military operations around the world, and it's the job of journalists to provide the American people with information they can use to make informed decisions.” PeopleWorldWarTodayDecisionSituationMilitaryPerspectiveRepublicanDemocratJournalist Author:Jeremy Scahill
“The key thing is that I've led a life of service to country that gave me perspectives that most people don't get, having been involved in international and national decision-making and the accomplishment of national and international political and diplomatic and military objectives.” PeopleCountryPoliticalMilitaryPerspectiveAccomplishmentDiplomatic Author:Ricardo Sanchez
“I feel that we have, as Mexicans, two things: one, a natural distrust of institutions. I hate organised religion, I hate organised politics, I hate the idea of the military and the police. Because we grew up distrusting all these sacred institutions, the only thing you have left is a vague, national sense of impending doom. Why do we drink and how are we so merry? Because we know that pretty soon, our time's up. There is a sense of fatality that makes us pretty chirpy people. You try to live. The only reason that dying is important is that it gives life sense.” PeopleGivingTryingImportantReasonHateNaturalDyingMilitaryDrinkI HatePoliceDistrustDoom Author:Guillermo del Toro
“We have a lot of cards to play in getting people to work together, as well as protecting our allies. And, at the end of the day, there is a military threat that has to be posed, and it should be very clear: If Kim Jong-un attacks our allies or any part of America, including Guam, we will retaliate with devastating force.” PeopleTogetherMilitaryThreatWorking Together Author:Hillary Clinton