Andrew Bacevich Quotes

If any overarching conclusion emerges from the Afghan and Iraq Wars (and from their Israeli equivalents), it's this: victory is a chimera.

Andrew Bacevich

• War
• Victory
• Conclusion
• Chimera

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Quotes to Explore

• The United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam.

  

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• Rushing to war is not a wise course of action.

  

  Zbigniew Brzezinski
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• One of the things I like best about Netflix is that they make projects like 'Beasts of No Nation.' It's a film about a reality in an African country where kids were being used to be soldiers in a war. And it made so much sense to me as a citizen of the world.

  

  Wagner Moura
  • World
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• But it required a disastrous, internecine war to bring this question of human freedom to a crisis, and the process of striking the shackles from the slave was accomplished in a single hour.

  

  Wendell Willkie
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• We can no longer afford the war in Iraq. Our financial costs have already passed a third of a trillion dollars; the lifetime costs for this war, in both human and economic terms, will be borne by Americans for generations to come.

  

  Earl Blumenauer
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  • Human
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• A skilful leech is better far, than half a hundred men of war.

  

  Samuel Butler
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  • Better

• People have the problem of denial. This is one of the things I learned in Lebanon. Everybody who left Beirut when the war started, including my parents, said, 'Oh, its temporary.' It lasted 17 years! People tend to underestimate the gravity of these situations. That's how they work.

  

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • People
  • Work
  • War

• I'm sure back in the Greek days or the Roman Empire days, when guys fought in arenas and were fighting lions, people were talking smack. Every era in history has someone talking smack. No way you can have talent and not proclaim your victory.

  

  J. B. Smoove
  • People
  • History
  • Fighting

• It's Kennedy's war, Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson got all the flak, but it's Kennedy's war.

  

  Salman Rushdie
  • War
  • Got
  • Vietnam

• The way to win an atomic war is to make certain it never starts.

  

  Omar N. Bradley
  • War
  • Never
  • Win

• I was brought up largely by my grandfather because my father only returned from a prisoner-of-war camp in 1947 and worked in the nearest small town, so I hardly ever saw him.

  

  W. G. Sebald
  • Up
  • War
  • Father

• It is absolutely true in war, were other things equal, that numbers, whether men, shells, bombs, etc., would be supreme. Yet it is also absolutely true that other things are never equal and can never be equal.

  

  J. F. C. Fuller
  • Men
  • War
  • True

• I've gone to war zones before and never got shot.

  

  Manute Bol
  • War
  • Never
  • Gone

• By legitimizing Iran's nuclear program, removing the pressure of economic sanctions, and allowing it to obtain conventional weapons and ballistic missiles, this agreement makes the prospect for war more likely, not less.

  

  J. B. Pritzker
  • War
  • Pressure
  • Weapons

• 'Pears like my heart go flutter, flutter, and then they may say, 'Peace, Peace,' as much as they likes - I know it's goin' to be war!

  

  Harriet Tubman
  • Heart
  • May
  • War

• There is a peculiar gratification in receiving congratulations from one's squadron for a victory in the air. It is worth more to a pilot than the applause of the whole outside world.

  

  Eddie Rickenbacker
  • World
  • Air
  • Victory

• I'm not in the business of bayoneting the wounded. I feel the blockchain revolution is kind of my victory. I don't care whether I win it, someone else wins it.

  

  Patrick M. Byrne
  • Business
  • Revolution
  • Win

• The NATO forces will, to the extent that they have capacity, assist the war crimes tribunal.

  

  Warren Christopher
  • War
  • Will
  • Capacity

• The watchword is only one, categorical and challenging for everyone. It already flies across and lights the hearts from the Alps to the Indian Ocean: Winning! And we will win, in order to finally give a long period of peace with justice to Italy, to Europe, to the world. (From the declaration of war's announce, 10 June 1940)

  

  Benito Mussolini
  • World
  • Long
  • War

• Istanbul owes its extraordinary situation to Golden Horn, Marmara Sea and The Bosphorus.

  

  Edmondo De Amicis
  • Situation
  • Extraordinary
  • Golden

• It felt like I'd been playing second-string football for a long time, when, suddenly, I was playing in the Super Bowl. Even when 'Basic Instinct' was a hit, I still felt like I was running with that ball toward the end zone. It took awhile for me to realize that I was already in the end zone with the ball down and the crowd screaming on its feet.

  

  Sharon Stone
  • Long
  • Running
  • Football

• I was for ever making plans, and if nothing came of them, what did it matter? The mere making had been a joy.

  

  Elizabeth von Arnim
  • Joy
  • Plans

• I think my darkest days were probably when I was catering. I would go to these parties and pass out hors d'oeuvres, and it's like you're invisible. I remember one catering captain told me that all you are is a tray that comes into their space for a moment and then you leave. It was one of the most depressing things I've ever been told.

  

  Jack Falahee
  • Remember
  • Space
  • Moment

• If any overarching conclusion emerges from the Afghan and Iraq Wars (and from their Israeli equivalents), it's this: victory is a chimera.

  

  Andrew Bacevich
  • War
  • Victory
  • Conclusion