Chuck Hagel Quotes

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

A surgeon will cut off a limb in order to protect the body from disease. And a commander-in-chief should pull out of a war that cannot be won in order to protect a nation.

By fighting a limited, defensive war, America permitted the enemy to endlessly re-supply their field armies.

You have a lot of support right now, but once you get a lot of casualties, this thing is going to change.

A government needs 100 soldiers for every guerilla it faces.

The enemy would not have been in danger if Mr. Stanton had been in the field.

It is better to make our enemy's country the theater of war than our own.

It is not without good reason that two captains are assigned to every company. For as it always is uncertain, what will be the conduct of an officer, or to what accidents he may be exposed; and, as in the affairs of war, there is no room for pretext or excuse; this method is contrived, that the company may not upon any occasion be destitute of a leader. When the captains therefore both are present, he that was first chosen leads the right, and the other the left of the company. And when either of them is absent, he that remains takes the conduct of the whole.

Generals do not always run wars the way they would like to, nor the troops under them.

War means fighting. The business of the soldier is to fight. ... To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the fruits of victory is the secret of successful war.

War is delightful for those who don't know it

No battle was ever won according to plan, but no battle was ever won without one.

Wars are not won by evacuations.

It is like when you go to war: we have to know how our enemies attack and defend.

Most wars are not won in a single battle.

War is a lottery in which nations ought to risk nothing but small amounts.

To know in war how to recognize an opportunity and seize it is better than anything else.

We read our mail and counted up our missions In bombers named for girls, we burned The cities we had learned about in school Till our lives wore out; our bodies lay among The people we had killed and never seen. When we lasted long enough they gave us medals; When we died they said, "Our casualties were low." They said, "Here are the maps"; we burned the cities.

There was an assumption that aerial bombing of civilians in World War II would cause fragile, working-class people to basically have nervous breakdowns and it would paralyze the state. That was the logic of aerial bombing. In fact, it doesn't happen at all, but the logic behind aerial bombing has never stopped, even though it never demoralizes, terrorizes, or paralyzes a population.

The time has come when we must proceed with the business of carrying the war to the enemy, not permitting the greater portion of our armed forces and our valuable material to be immobilized within the continental United States.

Every combat is the bloody and destructive measuring of the strength of forces, physical and moral; whoever at the close has the greatest amount of both left is the conqueror.

We are a nation at war. This is also a time for hard choices. It's about ensuring that we are able to prevail in the conflicts in which we are now engaged. But it's also about being able to be strong and disciplined in applying our nation's limited resources to defending America.

When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.

Humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance. Violent language and driving forward as if to the attack are signs that he will retreat.