Hamilton Fish Quotes

You can’t take military action in war without the support of government.

We don't declare war any more, we declare national defense.

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion … and you allow him to make war at pleasure. … If today he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may see no probability he would say to you, “Be silent!, I see if you don’t.”

We in America should see that no man is ever given, no matter how gradually or how noble and excellent the man, the power to put this country into a war

Diplomacy has failed. The sword must now preserve our independence.

The European NATO Counties are not interested in being liberated after 6 months of fighting on their territory. They are only interested in preventing the initial attack.

If NATO troops will come with ground forces, I will be the first volunteer in the Yugoslav army to defend my country, my family, my children.

There are two things that will always be difficult for a democratic people to do: to start a war and to finish it

Under our Constitution the Congress alone has the power to declare war.

International law seeks to avoid the use of force but does not preclude it.

No choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation.

Every nation has a right and duty to defend itself against unjust aggression. Offensive war of any kind is not morally justifiable.

I don’t think we should go to war with one person’s authority..

We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations—acting individually or in concert—will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

Every war I have ever covered – Kosovo, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Liberia – withstood all diplomatic efforts to end it until Western military action finally forced a resolution.

We still give the nation state the monopoly on the legal use of violence in our own defense.

Mobilization is not aggression.… The aggressor is the one who renders inevitable the first shot, in other words the nation who first declares war.

There is going to be no involvement of America in war unless it is the result of the Constitutional process that is placed upon Congress to declare it.

A nation has the right to defend itself, but when it comes to the broader issue of peace and security, the legitimacy rests only with the Security Council.

What is not conservative about saying, 'Don't go to war unless we go to war properly with a full declaration of war and no other way?'

We are not at war with Egypt. We are in an armed conflict.

I have always thought that Israel, as an independent and sovereign nation, had a right to defend itself.

If Pakistan has any ideas of annexing any part of our territories by force, she should think afresh. I want to state categorically that force will be met with force and aggression against us will never be allowed to succeed.

Some in my party threaten to send a message that they don't know a just war when they see it, and more broadly that they're not prepared to use our military strength to protect our security and the cause of freedom.

With options thus foreclosed, in order to protect and defend the nation and clear the obstacles that stood in its path, a decisive appeal to arms was made.