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War Quotes

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War Quotes

“During the day on Monday, Washington time, the airport at Saigon came under persistent rocket as well as artillery fire and was effectively closed. The military situation in the area deteriorated rapidly. I therefore ordered the evacuation of all American personnel remaining in South Vietnam.”

WellsWarSituationFireMilitaryColdAreasSouthVietnamCold WarMondayAirportsPersistentRocketsPersonnelArtilleryEvacuationSaigon
Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Gerald R. Ford, 1975
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“I'm a Veteran. I was in the Navy, in the submarine corps. I come from a military family. Both of my grandparents were in World War II and retired as officers. One fought in the Pacific and one fought in Europe. The whole family was in the war. I grew up exposed to it and hearing the stories, but the stories I heard weren't kind of the whole "Rah, rah, rah! We saved the world!" They were about the personal price and the emotional price.”

WorldKindWarWholeStoriesHeardMilitaryEmotionalGrewGrew UpEuropeHearingSavedWar Of The WorldsOfficersExposedWorld War IiWorld War IGrandparentVeteranNavyRetiredPacificMarine CorpsWhole FamilySubmarinesMilitary Family
Author:David Ayer
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“I want a military funeral when I die—the bugler, the flag on the casket, the ceremonial firing squad, the hallowed ground.... It will be a way of achieving what I've always wanted more than anything—something I could have had, if only I'd managed to get myself killed in the war.... The unqualified approval of my community.”

IfsWayWantWarWantedDiesCommunityAchieveMilitaryFuneralFlagsApprovalFiringSquadUnqualifiedCasketsHallowed Ground
Book:Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut
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“In the various states of society, armies are recruited from very different motives. Barbarians are urged by the love of war; the citizens of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty; the subjects, or at least the nobles, of a monarchy, are animated by a sentiment of honor; but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire must be allured into the service by the hopes of profit, or compelled by the dread of punishment.”

MayDifferentWarStatesPrinciplesSubjectsMilitaryDutyCitizensHonorArmyProfitVariousPunishmentMotiveEmpiresSentimentsRepublicDreadCompelledMonarchyAnimatedBarbariansLuxurious
Book:EDWARD GIBBON Premium Collection: Historiographical Works, Memoirs & Letters: Including
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“There is no military solution to the war in Iraq. Our troops can help suppress the violence, but they cannot solve its root causes. And all the troops in the world won't be able to force Shia, Sunni, and Kurd to sit down at a table, resolve their differences, and forge a lasting peace. In fact, adding more troops will only push this political settlement further and further into the future, as it tells the Iraqis that no matter how much of a mess they make, the American military will always be there to clean it up.”

WorldWarMatterFactsHelpingAblePoliticalForceCausesDifferencesViolenceMilitarySolutionsRootsTablesCleanIraqSolveMessLastingResolveTroopsSettlementOur TroopsRoot CauseKurdsAmerican MilitaryShia
Author:Barack Obama
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“Today the Israeli government continues seizures of Palestinian land for settlements, military incursions into surrounding countries and denial of the right of Palestinians expelled by terror to return. Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office. Israel's own Kahan commission found that Sharon shared responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacres.”

ShouldWarCountryGovernmentTodayFoundResponsibilityLandMilitaryReturnOfficePrisonTerrorIsraelCriminalsDenialMinistersPrimePalestinianPrime MinisterIsraeliSettlementMassacresArielSeizuresSharonShared Responsibility
Author:Ken Livingstone
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“Dear rulers ... I maintain that the civil authorities are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to school. ... If the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear spear and rifle, to mount ramparts, and perform other martial duties in time of war, how much more has it a right to compel the people to send their children to school, because in this case we are warring with the devil, whose object it is secretly to exhaust our cities and principalities of their strong men.”

PeopleIfsMenChildrenWarGovernmentSchoolStrongCitiesCasesMilitaryObjectsDutyBearsCitizensFitAuthorityDevilDearObligationRulersRiflesSpearsStrong ManMilitary Service
Author:Martin Luther
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“The Germans gathered together ethnic divisions from all over Europe in which men of the same linguistic and cultural background could serve together. The Georgian SS division conducted itself with distinction in normal military action, but a good many people seem to think that anybody who was ever a member of the SS was automatically a war criminal.”

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Author:Jeff Cooper
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“Just in time for the renewal of the war debate in Congress, the University of Chicago Press has released The U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. . . . It's a nifty volume, not only because it gives you a sense of what our most highly regarded military theorists are thinking but because sometimes what they're thinking is the last thing you'd expect. Especially interesting is a section called 'Paradoxes of Counterinsurgency Operations,' which tells us: 'Sometimes doing nothing is the best reaction' and 'Sometimes, the more force is used, the less effective it is.'”

ThinkingGivingWarSometimesLastsUsedForceInterestingMilitaryFieldsArmyPressesUniversityCongressDebateReactionsOperationsParadoxChicagoVolumeSectionsMarineRenewalDoing NothingManualsMarine CorpsTheoristsCounterinsurgency
Author:David L. Ulin
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“Meanwhile, the U.S. debt remains, as it has been since 1790, a war debt; the United States continues to spend more on its military than do all other nations on earth put together, and military expenditures are not only the basis of the government's industrial policy; they also take up such a huge proportion of the budget that by many estimations, were it not for them, the United States would not run a deficit at all.”

Has BeensWarStatesGovernmentRunningEarthTogetherNationsUnitedUnited StatesMilitaryPolicyHugeBasesRemainsDebtBudgetsProportionDeficitExpendituresEstimationBudget Deficit
Author:David Graeber
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“The imperialistic or capitalistic system occupies areas. It occupies Vietnam now. They occupy them by sending soldiers there, by sending policeman there. The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism. The gun in the establishment's hand makes the establishment secure in its exploitation.”

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Author:Huey Newton
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“Industrial production, the flow of resources in the economy, the exertion of military effort in a war, the management of finances --all require the coordination of interrelated activities. What these complex undertakings share in common is the task of constructing a statement of actions to be performed, their timing and quantity (called a program or schedule), that, if implemented, would move the system from a given initial status as much as possible towards some defined goal”

IfsWarActionMovingGivenGoalCommonEffortEconomyShareMilitaryActivityResourcesProgramFlowTasksManagementComplexesProductionsStatementsFinanceDefinedQuantityTimingSchedulesInitialsUndertakingsExertionCoordination
Author:George Dantzig
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“Industrial production, the flow of resources in the economy, the exertion of military effort in a war theater-all are complexes of numerous interrelated activities. Differences may exist in the goals to be achieved, the particular processes involved, and the magnitude of effort. Nevertheless, it is possible to abstract the underlying essential similarities in the management of these seemingly disparate systems.”

MayWarProcessGoalDifferencesEffortEconomyMilitaryParticularInvolvedActivityEssentialsResourcesFlowTheaterManagementComplexesProductionsAbstractNeverthelessSimilarityMagnitudeExertion
Book:Linear Programming and Extensions
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“So the Bush-Obama administration has taken a fiscal stance diametrically opposed to that of the patron saint of free enterprise. While escalating war in Afghanistan and maintaining over 850 military bases around the world, the administration has run up the national debt that Smith decried. By shifting the tax burden off property and off rent-seeking monopolies - above all, off the financial sector - this policy has raised America's cost of living and doing business, thereby undercutting its competitive power and running up larger and larger foreign debt.”

WorldWarRunningAmericaTakenMilitaryPolicyCostTaxesBasesPropertyRaisedFinancialSaintSeekingBurdenDebtAround The WorldAdministrationEnterpriseAfghanistanMaintainingMonopolyShiftingStanceAnd OffFree EnterprisePatronNational DebtCost Of LivingEscalatingTax BurdenMilitary Bases
Author:Michael Hudson
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“The children are designated as "Air Force aides of the Hitler youth" and wear military uniforms and become used to handling the anti-aircraft artillery flak guns. 15 and 16 year old children as warriors! If the war still continues to last for a long time, perhaps the babies will be also employed. Total war!!”

IfsYearsChildrenLongStillsWarLastsUsedForceAirMilitaryYouthBabyLong TimeGunWarriorUniformsEmployedTotal WarAir ForceAircraftArtilleryHitler YouthMilitary Uniform
Author:Friedrich Kellner
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“Germany, which has lately united 80 million Germans, has submitted certain neighboring countries to her supremacy and gained military strength in many aspects, and thus has become, as clearly can be seen, a dangerous rival to principal imperialistic powers in Europe - England and France. That is why they declared war on Germany on a pretext of fulfilling the obligations given to Poland. It is now clearer than ever, how remote the real aims of the cabinets in these countries were from the interests of defending the now disintegrated Poland or Czechoslovakia.”

WarRealCountryCertainGivenInterestUnitedMillionsMilitaryDangerousEuropeAspectEnglandAimObligationFranceGermanyPrincipalFulfillingRivalsCabinetsSupremacyPolandPretextCzechoslovakia
Author:Vyacheslav Molotov
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“Teller contended, not implausibly, that hydrogen bombs keep the peace, or at least prevent thermonuclear war, because the consequences of warfare between nuclear powers are now too dangerous. We haven't had a nuclear war yet, have we? But all such arguments assume that the nuclear-armed nations are and always will be, without exception, rational actors, and that bouts of anger and revenge and madness will never overtake their leaders (or military and secret police officers in charge of nuclear weapons). In the century of Hitler and Stalin, this seems ingenuous.”

WarSeemsActorsNationsSecretLeaderCenturyMilitaryDangerousHavensWeaponsConsequenceArgumentMadnessPoliceAssumingRevengeNuclearRationalBombsExceptionOfficersNuclear WeaponsWarfarePolice OfficerNuclear WarHydrogenNuclear PowerSecret PoliceHydrogen Bomb
Author:Carl Sagan
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“To engage in war is always to pick a wild card. And war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any president who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50 percent children is ‘in the highest moral traditions of our country.'”

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Author:Robert Byrd
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“The pre-war empire had been sufficiently informal and sufficiently cheap for Parliament to claim authority over it without having to concern itself too much about what this authority entailed. The post-war empire necessitated a much greater investment in administrative machinery and military force. This build-up of control had to be paid for, either by British taxpayers or by their colonists.”

WarForceGreaterToo MuchMilitaryAuthorityConcernClaimsPaidInvestmentBritishPostsEmpiresOver ItParliamentMachineryTaxpayersBritish HistoryAdministrativeMilitary ForcePost WarColonists
Author:Linda Colley
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“For women to be supplying the soldiery with banners, flannel shirts and other material comforts was, superficially, all of a piece with their ministrations to their menfolk at home. Such contributions to the war effort were socially acceptable because they could be seen as an extension into the military sphere of the traditional female virtues of charity, nurture and needlework. Yet in reality what the women were doing represented the thin end of a far more radical wedge. Consciously or not, these female patriots were staking out a civic role for themselves. And many of them relished it.”

WarEndsHomeRealityEffortRolesVirtuePiecesMilitaryMaterialsComfortFemaleCharityTraditionalRadicalShirtsContributionSpheresAcceptablePatriotNurtureExtensionsCivicsBannerBritish HistoryWedgesFlannelsNeedlework
Author:Linda Colley
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“Medieval England was a great military power with a sophisticated machinery of government, but her naval administration, at best improvised and for long periods missing altogether, pointed to a grave weakness: the lack of any reliable means of putting a force of warships at the disposal of the crown. Only Richard I and Henry V of all the kings of England can be said to have understood the problem and attempted to remedy it. It is no coincidence that they wer by far the most successful in war.”

MeanLongSaidWarProblemGovernmentForceSuccessfulMilitaryMissingKingsPeriodsUnderstoodWeaknessEnglandGravesAdministrationRemedyCrownsSophisticatedCoincidenceMachineryMedievalNavalMilitary PowerGreat MilitaryHenry VWarships
Author:Nicholas Rodger
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“I hope that the outside world will realise that Hitler's government has no idea of steering towards war, even though this has often been asserted abroad. As Adolf Hitler himself has said, Germany has no need of another war to avenge the loss of her military honour, because she never lost that honour. Germany does not want war of any kind. Germany wants real and abiding peace.”

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Author:Rudolf Hess
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“When our mothers are alive and healthy, they do extraordinary things... like the mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who marched in Argentinean plazas, defying the military junta dictatorship and demanding the whereabouts of their abducted children... or the Liberian mothers who faced down civil war armed only with T-shirts and courage.”

ChildrenWarMotherAliveMilitaryHealthyExtraordinaryShirtsCivil WarDictatorshipT ShirtExtraordinary ThingsDefyingWhereabouts
Author:Liya Kebede
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“Throughout history civilian populations and political rulers have talked of peace. We have never been free of war. The soldier, whose profession is war, understands that peace must be enforced by superior military might. The certainty of defeat is the only effective deterrent we can use to maintain peace. Furthermore, we can be strong without being aggressive.”

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Author:Barry Goldwater
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“The war with Iraq ... had to be one of the greatest non sequiturs in military history. Attacked by a gang composed largely of Islamic militants from Saudi Arabia, the United States countered by invading an unrelated country, and one of the most secular in the Middle East at that.”

WarCountryStatesUnitedUnited StatesMiddleMilitaryIraqEastIslamicMiddle EastSecularGangArabiaSaudi ArabiaSaudisInvadingMilitary History
Book:Going to Extremes: Notes from a Divided Nation
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