QuoteLog

“The only reasons for these facilities are to subvert domestic and foreign law. And no one gives a shit. And it does not makes us safer to have a clandestine service indiscriminately detaining, abusing, and torturing people around the world in secret prisons.”

“Some argue that since our actions are not as horrifying as Al Qaeda’s, we should not be concerned. When did Al Qaeda become any type of standard by which we measure the morality of the United States? We are America, and our actions should be held to a higher standard, the ideals expressed in documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

“The original al Qaeda are hiding in the mountains, not a technologically very well-equipped place. Iraq is an urban combat zone. Technology is a big part of that. I don’t know how to distinguish the Internet now from the military campaign in general in Iraq.”

“We didn’t know we were supposed to be affected by this. So we weren’t. We went to college and got jobs and raised families. We didn’t know we were supposed to go crazy. We weren’t looking to change the world. Our objective was to shorten the war. We were civilians in uniform. We just wanted to get out.”

“At a time when the Army and Marine Corps are struggling to fill their ranks, many conservatives are determined to limit the ability of women and gays to contribute to the war effort. Are they more concerned with winning culture wars at home or winning the war on terrorism abroad?”

“Pat had high ideals about the country; that’s why he did what he did. The military let him down. The administration let him down. It was a sign of disrespect. The fact that he was the ultimate team player and he watched his own men kill him is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. The fact that they lied about it afterward is disgusting.”

“The post-invasion phase of the operation (‘Phase IV’) there has been the most poorly planned U.S. military mission since Somalia in 1993 — if not Lebanon in 1983 — with greater consequences for national security than any use of force since Vietnam.”

“One of the worst scandals in American military history happened on their watch, under their direction, at least partly due to conditions under their control. And yet, the highest-ranking individual to see prosecution so far for these abuses is a Staff Sergeant.”

“I’m thinking we have our most precious resource engaged in combat, and certainly the wealth of our nation can provide young, selfless men with what they need to accomplish their mission. That’s an erudite way of putting it. I have a much more guttural response that I won’t give you.”

“The Bush administration and the military insist that any abuse of detainees is a violation of policy and that abusers are being punished. If so, why does it refuse to allow a genuinely independent commission to investigate without fear or favor? Why do Republican leaders on Capitol Hill refuse to launch a proper congressional investigation? And why do my fellow conservatives — those who support the war for all the right reasons — continue to keep silent about a scandal that should have them up in arms?”

“If we’re exporting detainees for the express purpose that they be tortured under interrogation by another regime, it’s a terrible idea. Any short-term gain that might come out of it won’t be worth the long-term ill impression created by it. We’re promoting democracy across the region, and you can’t have torture by a dictatorial government. You just can’t do it. If you’re an idealist and you believe in democracy, it’s bad policy. It’s hypocritical, and it will blow up in your face.”

“As regular readers know, I write as a war hawk. I strongly support the mission in Iraq. I voted for President Bush. I believe the struggle against Islamist totalitarianism is the most urgent conflict of our time. But none of that justifies the administration’s apparent willingness to countenance — under at least some circumstances — the indecent abuse of prisoners in military custody.”

“The men and women of our military have performed magnificently over the last few years. We are more proud of them than we can say. But many of them would be the first to say that the armed forces are too small. And we would say that surely we should be doing more to honor the contract between America and those who serve her in war.”

“I asked [Colonel] Saul what lessons the Army has learned in Iraq, and he said, ‘Not much, because lessons learned, in past tense, means you’ve modified behavior. Until you demonstrate changed behavior, you haven’t learned a lesson.’”

“Rumsfeld should have been a great SecDef. He’s intelligent, energetic, experienced and forceful. But his arrogance and the appalling behavior of his key subordinates (none of whom served in uniform) crippled morale at the top during wartime while failing to provide the leadership, support and integrity our troops deserve when we send them into battle.”

“Set aside what the mass of people think. Some things are so bad for them that you cannot allow them to have them. One of them is war in the context of terrorism in the United States. Therefore, we have to abridge individual rights, change the societal conditions, and act in ways that heretofore were not in accordance with our values and traditions, like giving a police officer or security official the right to search you without a judicial finding of probable cause.”

“The reality right now is that the most dangerous opinion in the world is the opinion of a U.S. serviceman.”

“This is a hard war and we, frankly, inside the Army Reserve have been not properly prepared for it.”

“My Bronze Star citation, signed by Zumwalt, praised the charge tactic we used that day ... There’s at least one mistake in that citation. It incorrectly identifies the river where the main action occurred, a reminder that such documents were often done in haste and sometimes authored for their signers by staffers. It’s a cautionary note for those trying to piece it all together. There’s no final authority on something that happened so long ago — not the documents and not even the strained recollections of those of us who were there.”

“We will know that we have established the predicate for waging an effective intelligence war when the next time something goes wrong, it is corrected quickly, but without an orgy of groveling self-abuse. Unfortunately, by then George Tenet will likely be a distant memory indeed.”

“I am struck once again by the incomparable hold VIETNAM has over some people. They don’t seem to realize how the use of this inapt example demonstrates their inability to grasp the nature of new and different conflicts. When I was in college, El Salvador was Vietnam. When I was in Washington, Kuwait was Vietnam. Afghanistan was briefly Vietnam when we hadn’t won the war after a week. It’s Warholian: in the future, all conflicts will be Vietnam for 15 minutes.”

“If war is coming, Southerners know that it’s better to fight on the other guy’s territory.”

“But just as there are armchair warriors, who run none of the risks that they recommend for others, so there are armchair pacifists whose commitment isn’t tested by the threat to family or friends. Just other peoples’ families and friends. We still depend, even in the days of Trisha and trauma counselling, on men and women who will, if necessary, die on our behalf. And I must express my astonishment and gratitude that they will.”

“You call Donald Rumsfeld and tell him our sorry asses are ready to go home. Tell him to come spend a night in our building.”

“I had a generator and a freezer full of meat. I grilled, I drank alcohol and watched the entire war secretly on satellite.”

“I do believe this city is freakin’ ours.”

“The mystery is why the Iraqis left the RG [Republican Guard] in defensive positions so far south of Baghdad. They must have known from Desert Storm what our air power could do. I can only assume that Saddam Hussein was worried about the loyalty of the RG if he pulled them back into the city. His priority has always been the survival of his own regime rather than the survival of his troops.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“The mere absence of war is not peace.”

“There’s no such thing as a fairly fought war. Anyone who thinks so is naive to the point of being dangerous.”

“It takes but one to make a war, not two, and those who do not have swords may still die upon them.”

“We have become too civilized to grasp the obvious. For the truth is very simple. To survive you often have to fight, and to fight you have to dirty yourself. War is evil, and it is often the lesser evil.”

“Understandably, the Bush administration would prefer to wait until closer to the eve of the offensive to enunciate its refutation of the skeptics. But just as war quickly discombobulates war plans, a democracy’s planning for war is subject to unruly contingencies.”

“I object to sacrificing in the name of a war when our leaders are acting in all other ways as if it’s not a war. If this be treason, then make the most of it.”

“For Americans war is almost all of the time a nuisance, and military skill is a luxury like Mah-Jongg. But when the issue is brought home to them, war becomes as important, for the necessary period, as business or sport. And it is hard to decide which is likely to be the more ominous for the Axis - an American decision that this is sport, or that it is business.”

“War is upon us, none can deny it. It is not the choice of the Government of the United States, but of a faction; the Government was forced to accept the issue, or to submit to a degradation fatal and disgraceful to all the inhabitants. In accepting war, it should be ‘pure and simple’ as applied to belligerents. I would keep it so, till all traces of the war are effaced; til those who appealed to it are sick and tired of it, and come to the emblem of our nation, and sue for peace. I would not coax them, or even meet them half-way, but make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it.”

“A military operation involves deception. Even though you are competent, appear to be incompetent. Though effective, appear to be ineffective.”

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

“All wars are popular for the first thirty days.”

“Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it.”

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

“War hath no fury like a non-combatant.”

“Blunders are an inescapable feature of war, because choice in military affairs lies generally between the bad and the worse.”

“This war, like the next war, is a war to end war.”

“Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.”

“Do you know what a soldier is, young man? He’s the chap who makes it possible for civilised folk to despise war.”

“It is open to a war resister to judge between the combatants and wish success to the one who has justice on his side. By so judging he is more likely to bring peace between the two than by remaining a mere spectator.”

“There is nothing so subject to the inconstancy of fortune as war.”

“There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others.”

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse.”

“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harms way.”

“If men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.”

“Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.”

“Never show your emotion. It reveals your weakness. Never Hate your enemy. It effects your judgement.”

“Let him who desires peace, prepare for war.”

“We make war that we may live in peace.”

“Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.”

“War is capitalism with the gloves off.”

“I guess I figured I’d left no real room for confusion after putting it in a four-word sentence with one-syllable words, on the tablets I gave to Moses. How much more clear can I get?”

“The truth is that PowerPoint is what makes the war run. Memos are all done in Word but wars are planned and briefed in Powerpoint.”