Sam Brownback Quotes

The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor.

Our foreign policy and our military policy is make sure that we fight on foreign shores and not shores here.

The doctrine of preemption has a long and distinguished history in the history of American foreign policy.

Our country has never started a war. Our sole objective is deterrence, the strength and capability it takes to prevent war.

The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.

Instead of planning to deter would-be [nuclear] proliferators, U. S. policy makers have developed a preference for preventative war, They now seem to feel that deterrence is too weak to deal with radical regimes, forgetting that the precise purpose of deterrence is to counter dangerous enemies, not cautious ones.

In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, not does it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defence.

War is just a racket... I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else.

The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.

To my mind, what we ought to have maintained from the beginning was the strictest neutrality. If we had done this, I do not believe we would have been on the verge of war at the present time.

What I've learned, and will try to remember from now on, is that defending your country's credibility is never sufficient reason to fight a war.

I've been very sensitive for a long time to the repeated pattern, during economic hard times or after a war, of the United States' essentially unilaterally disarming.

Our modern states are preparing for war without even knowing the future enemy.

I believe in a strong national defense. But it's my belief that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan poses a threat to national security, and we shouldn't be involved in either area.

To secure peace is to prepare for war.

I'm not running around the world looking for ways to create hostilities.

The American people need to tell their member of Congress that we need a strong defense to protect us and to prevent wars. We can't get away with simply leading from behind and gutting our defenses.

Our policy is very simple. The Jewish state was set up to defend Jewish lives, and we always reserve the right to defend ourselves.

Against … attack the existing peacetime forces of the Army and Navy in the Hawaiian islands, including their necessary munitions and supplies, are believed to be adequate. The success of our defense against this form of attack will depend almost wholly upon our not being totally surprised by the enemy, and will require an efficient intelligence service, not only in the Hawaiian Islands but elsewhere.

In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.

The Defense Department has a great deal of influence on foreign policy, and State has very little impact on defense policy.

The [foreign] policy of the United States is modeled on interventionism and aggression. It is logical that we should always be very suspicious.

We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge. If we wait for threats to fully materialize we will have waited too long.

There is not a conceivable enemy unless we create it, not a nation that would fight us if it could.