Jay Leno Quotes

In a highly diverse and fragmented society like Iraq, the military...is one of the few national institutions that stresses national unity as an important principle. Tot ear apart the army in the war’s aftermath could lead to the destruction of one of the only forces for unity within the society.

We paid a big price for not stopping it -- that is the looting and the security -- because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness. We never had enough troops on the ground

We are creating a generation that is losing hope, and when people don't have hope then they have nothing to lose. And when people have nothing to lose it's a short step to rob or loot or riot or burn or even kill.

Part of the attraction of the riots is the looting, which seems to be almost unrestrained. I always thought that when rioting breaks out, looters must be shot. Otherwise the situation will get entirely out of hand. [Lyndon] Johnson has made all the right gestures but it is exceedingly difficult to see any end to the tension, let alone the violence which seems to be in some way part of the American way of life.

I’d rather build highways here then try nation building in Iraq

It’s not the plans, it’s the people. I think we should have Defense Department people.

We’re not going to need as many people to do peacekeeping as we needed to fight the war.

How do you lose track of 12 billion dollars of cash? Send it to Iraq. 360 tons of cash. We know how much it weighed but we don’t know where it went.

Keep your weapons pointed down. This is not Iraq.

Yesterday a crowd of women assembled on the public square and marching thence down Main, sacked several shoe, grocery and other stores. Their pretense was bread; but their motive really was license. Few of them have really felt want. The President went down amongst them and said a few words to them telling them that the course they were pursuing was the one most likely to bring scarcity of food on the city.... It was a real women’s riot, but as yet there is really little cause for one—there is scarcity, but little want.

The initial [Iraq] war was won in about 6 weeks, but the peace was lost soon thereafter.

The masses are principally to be feared because they fly out ever and anon into violence; and from plundering they proceed to the flat levelling of estates.

If we can reach unity between all the components of the people, the canals of terrorism will dry up.

Sometimes I feel like the government is more afraid of people telling the truth than they are of the protests and violence.

We will win again in Iraq; I do think that Iraq can definitely be handled. I think that it can be kept intact.

If you cut art from school, you're going to have a lot more looted shops.

The capacity to produce social chaos is the last resort of desperate people.

You saw on your TV what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The Reserves or National Guard are usually the people we use for those national emergencies. They weren't here, they were over in Iraq, and so we were less protected.

General rebellions and revolts of a whole people never were encouraged now or at any time. They are always provoked.

It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting three weeks ago, 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world. The Syrian people, the Egyptian people, all say that something is changing. The Berlin Wall has fallen. We can see it.

Being in Vietnam changed him [Johnny Cash] fundamentally. He was devastated when we went into Iraq.

Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.

And then, of course, Bush won reelection, with everything out there, all of our complaints, all of the issues, all of the troubles with Iraq. So where are we? Bush certainly sees himself as having been given an endorsement. He was asked about accountability in an interview, about why Rumsfeld, Rice, and Wolfowitz have been promoted, these people who led us into the debacle in Iraq. Bush said there was accountability - it was the election. So there we are.

Somebodys paying the corporations that destroyed Iraq and the corporations that are rebuilding it. Theyre getting paid by the American taxpayer in both cases. So we pay them to destroy the country, and then we pay them to rebuild it. Those are gifts from U.S. taxpayer to U.S. corporations.

I think in a post-9/11 world, with the images coming back from Iraq, everybody knows more and more people who are going over there... the images on the YouTube phenomenon where the violence is so immediate. Direct people need something stronger to respond to. I think that there's definitely a wave of directors - who are labelled the splat pack - who really, really care about making great scary movies.