ANDREW J. BACEVICH

When the state does go to war ... so too should the nation.

U. S. forces [are] more or less permanently engaged in ongoing hostilities. In one theater after another, fighting erupts, ebbs, flows, and eventually meanders toward some ambiguous conclusion, only to erupt anew or be eclipsed by a new round of fighting elsewhere. Nothing really ends.

There is a yawning discrepancy of what Americans expect and for what they are willing to pay.

The mainstream of both the Republican and Democratic Parties are equally committed to militarism today.

Any great power—especially a great one suddenly deprived of its traditional adversary—faces the perennial dilemma of showing a reasonable return on its costly military investments.

Our army is really an imperial army…. We used to wonder why British imperialists went to Iraq and Afghanistan.

No American witnessing the way that President George W. Bush and his generals have bungled the Iraq war can deny that our leaders, civilian and military alike, will have to get a lot smarter if the U.S. armed services are to persuade the Islamic world to embrace the blessings of democracy.

Time and again, attempts by machine-age armies to impose their will on irregular forces supported by a sympathetic population failed.

The aim of war now is not to defeat your enemy – that’s probably impossible – but to change the way he and his supporters think.

Besotted with ambition, empires in our age have betrayed an astonishing propensity for self-inflicted wounds…. Of the dangers that threaten a Great Power, the most insidious come from within.

Any great power—especially a great one suddenly deprived of its traditional adversary—faces the perennial dilemma of showing a reasonable return on its costly military investments.

Desert Storm seemingly reversed one of the principal lessons of Vietnam—namely that excessive reliance on technology in war is a recipe for disaster.

Market expansion is not an opportunity. It is a necessity.

Time and again, attempts by machine-age armies to impose their will on irregular forces supported by a sympathetic population failed.

How the United States chose to deal with its growing reliance on foreign oil would determine its future.

The aim of war now is not to defeat your enemy – that’s probably impossible – but to change the way he and his supporters think.

No American witnessing the way that President George W. Bush and his generals have bungled the Iraq war can deny that our leaders, civilian and military alike, will have to get a lot smarter if the U.S. armed services are to persuade the Islamic world to embrace the blessings of democracy.

When you go to war it is highly unlikely that it will end with a neat, tidy conclusion.

Ronald Reagan was the modern prophet of profligacy.

The Persian Gulf region would have zero strategic importance were it not for the oil.

Our army is really an imperial army…. We used to wonder why British imperialists went to Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is a yawning discrepancy of what Americans expect and for what they are willing to pay.

Our foreign policy reflects the perceptions of our political elite about what we want.

The first obligation towards those we love is to keep them from harm. So if we love our troops, the most important thing we can do is to send them into harm’s way only if it absolutely necessary… We have abused our troops—particularly the army and the marines.

The mainstream of both the Republican and Democratic Parties are equally committed to militarism today.

U. S. forces [are] more or less permanently engaged in ongoing hostilities. In one theater after another, fighting erupts, ebbs, flows, and eventually meanders toward some ambiguous conclusion, only to erupt anew or be eclipsed by a new round of fighting elsewhere. Nothing really ends.

The Pentagon has expended stupendous sums. Yet when it comes to promised results—–disorder curbed, democracy promoted, human rights advanced, terrorism suppressed—–the United States has precious little to show.

When the state does go to war ... so too should the nation.

Large-scale corruption persists, with Afghanistan third from the bottom in international rankings, ahead of only Somalia and North Korea. Adjusted for inflation, American spending to reconstruct Afghanistan now exceeds the total expended to rebuild all of Western Europe under the Marshall Plan; yet to have any hope of surviving, the Afghan government will for the foreseeable future remain almost completely dependent on outside support.

Wars once begun drag on in perpetuity.