QuoteLog

“For many in the world, friend or foe, the McDonald’s corporation is the ultimate symbol of America and its power. It would seem that, from the media coverage of the past week, the Big Mac effect also extends to warfare. If a conflict is not over in the time it takes to acquire and dispose of a cheeseburger, fries and strawberry shake, then something seriously disturbing must be happening. It is the fast-food approach to international relations.”

“Last night, as the sun set and darkness fell dozens of men huddled around outside, stared at the stars and enjoyed the biggest treat of all - boiling water.”

“When I get tired of the puffery of FOX News, I counter it with a bit of the defeatism they’re peddling over at NPR.”

“It might seem perverse to seek to spread peace at the barrel of a gun; but the peace we enjoy here in Europe exists only because we (along with the Americans) acted with weaponry to banish tyrants. The Iraqi people want and deserve the same.”

“For the first time a lot of people are amazed at how human war is. They see people in Iraq are like people in Tuscaloosa. People are becoming more highly educated without even trying to. If you’re alive today, you’re automatically brought into this global society. You don’t have a choice.”

“One lesson of the ferocity of the Saddamite resistance is surely this: who now could possibly, conceivably believe that this brutal police state would ever, ever have voluntarily disarmed? Would a regime that is forcing conscripts to fight at gun-point have caved to the terrifying figure of Hans Blix, supported by the even more itimidating vision of Dominique de Villepin? I’d say that one clear lesson of the first week is that war was and is the only mechanism that could have effectively disarmed Saddam. If true disarmament was your goal, it seems to me that the inspections regime has been revealed, however well-intentioned, as hopelessly unsuited to staring down a vicious totalitarian system.”

“All these people need to calm down, take a deep breath, and read their history — computing the logistics of fighting 7,000 miles away and considering the hurdles of vast space, unpredictable weather, and enemies without uniforms. And? In just a week, the United States military has surrounded one of history’s most sadistic and nasty regimes. It has overrun 80 percent of the countryside and has daily pulverized the Republican Guard, achieving more in five days than the Iranians did in eight years.”

“I think that a lot of us -- me included, sometimes -- are spending a lot of time reading minute-by-minute reports that are fragmentary and often wrong, and not enough time thinking about the big picture.”

“Hell, 15 dead: that’s a quiet day in the Arab world. Even imagining the United States was targeting civilians, its efforts are laughable compared with Saddam -- 5,000 dead in the chemical attack on Halabja in one day -- or Assad -- 30,000 shelled to death in Hama -- or pretty much any other Arab ruler. Arab governments -- and their press and public -- should first practice moral judgment on themselves and each other, before turning their outrage on the United States.”

“If truth is the first casualty of war, then CNN and BBC were having trouble in providing it whole, their reporters tossing up shards of the seen-and-heard into an informational whirlwind difficult to piece into a single sheet of reality. But French and German television were having an even harder time in underpinning their inclinations to describe things in a way that neatly fit their governments’ insistence that all this would not end well.”

“Well, that’s it. War’s lost. It’s amazing how fast things change; in Afghanistan, it took three weeks before someone whispered ‘Quagmire’ and all was forsaken; this time it took but five days before an intrepid reporter stood up at a briefing and asked the military spokesman whether the specter of Vietnam loomed again over the swaggering, clay-footed giant of American power.”

“The United States is going to leave Iraq with its tail between its legs, defeated. It is a war we can not win ... We do not have the military means to take over Baghdad and for this reason I believe the defeat of the United States in this war is inevitable.”

“Saddam’s hardcore thugs were able to round up their POWs, get out the camcorder, murder them, defile their corpses and get the footage from a relatively remote part of the country to the studio while the blood was still warm on the dungeon floor. As with the Daniel Pearl execution tape vis-à-vis Osama, it invites the question: If they can do this, where’s the boss? The speed of this revolting production suggests that, if the Iraqi leadership aren’t making video appearances, it’s not because of technical difficulties, it’s because they’re not in a condition to be filmed.”

“If the Republican Guard divisions are offering themselves outside the city, draw the diehards out, the better to destroy them. If the US is to demonstrate its ruthlessness, in a region which respects only power, let’s have the demonstration now, rather than during an extended occupation. And, if there is to be killing, let it be a slaughter of the regime’s shock troops, well away from the city, and civilians. With the Republican Guard and Baathist party forces destroyed, rather than slipping back into bitter anonymity, reform of Iraq might actually stand a chance.”

“Tactical surprise was lost long ago. In fact, never in the history of military operations have so many troops had to invade so exposed from such a narrow front. Patton yelled to ‘@#!&! the flanks’ and plunge ahead; but even he would have never been so audacious to send thousands barreling nonstop ahead in a narrow motorized column. It took Sherman three months to slice through the Carolinas; Patton romped his 400 miles in two months; we are impatient that it might take us five days to cover the same distance to Saddam Hussein’s bunker.”

“Just a minute there, Herr Professor. Calm down, Dr. Think Tank. I’m just a former career soldier, so I don’t understand military operations the way academics and pundits do. Explain something to me, slowly and clearly: Why on earth would Gen. Tommy Franks do exactly what Saddam wants, and send our forces charging into the streets of Baghdad? We’re not stupid - or Russian - for God’s sake. We’re not going to slug down a couple of bottles of vodka apiece and drive straight into Grozniy while Chechens pick off our tanks and troops at their leisure. We are going to make the rules in Baghdad, not Saddam.”

“A highly motivated, all-volunteer force of men and women raised in a democracy and armed with the finest equipment the world, are about to square off with equally motivated men raised in a brutal dictatorship and armed with legacy equipment.”

“Which brings us to post-war aim II: no more State Secrets, when it comes to the Saudis. Three thousand of us were murdered by 15 Saudis, and they were aiming for 30,000 or more. The relationship is sick, no matter what short-term benefits Bush & Co. wrangled out of their Riyadh pals in the buildup toward war. When the cease-fire is signed, I want to hear a Ten-Point program for the de-Saudization of our foreign policy, either from Bush or whatever Democrat recognizes the opportunity ... and more importantly, the responsibility.”

“The Iraqis knew that a devastating attack was on the cards. Early in the afternoon shortwave news bulletins had reported the departure from the US air base at Fairford, in Britain, of a fleet of heavily armed B52 bombers. But such was their confidence in the promised accuracy of the strikes, that small groups of Iraqis gathered in the street and on rooftops to watch on a cool, perfectly still spring night, as the buildings that spoke the oppressive power of the state became sitting ducks on the expansive flood plain of the Tigris.”

“The quickest way to end a war is to lose it.”

“Whether or not we like it, the war is happening and it’s not going to go away -- clogging the streets, assaulting cops and vandalizing property isn’t helping an already lost cause. Alienating people who are trying to get to work is not a well thought out strategy for mustering support and the current crop of protesters look like a bunch of spoiled schoolchildren having a tantrum.”

“Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”

“Some things are true even if George Bush believes them.”

“The mere absence of war is not peace.”

“My problem with ‘old Europe’ is that it’s taken on the characteristic of its capital’s most famous statue: a small boy who just stands there pissing 24 hours a day.”

“Let me see if I’ve got this straight: One, the French say we’re arrogant. Two, the Germans say we’re warmongers. Three, the Russians say we don’t respect the rule of law. And now four, the Arabs think we’re undemocratic. And if that doesn’t convince you of the correctness of our position, nothing will.”

“It’s mindblowingly frustrating for me personally, that as I become increasingly convinced that Bush and his Administration are mendacious and lack the real clarity of moral vision and ability to broaden and sell that vision that is required to deal with the current world situation, I become more convinced that the people who oppose his policy are morons. It doesn’t leave me with a lot of places to stand on this.”

“If Europe were to apply as much pressure on Saddam Hussein as (it) does on the United States and Britain, I think we could prevent war.”

“The French care so much about the Palestinians, but they don’t give a damn about the Iraqis.”

“Drug warriors must recognize that some eleven million American adults enjoy getting high at least annually — to relax and endure these nerve-wracking times. Some brave this endless winter, the drooping Dow, the Columbia disaster, the Rhode Island nightclub inferno, and growing war jitters by sipping martinis. Others play Lotto or visit Vegas. Still more sleep around. In excess, these behaviors can ruin one’s health, fortunes, or both. Yet only smoking grass yields jail time. This is silly, illogical, and wicked.”