Jack Keane Quotes

The War Powers Act requires presidents to seek the consent of the American people, through their representatives, before sending our troops into war. It is the responsibility of Congress to deliberate and consult with the executive branch before involving ourselves in a military conflict.

Since 1945, no one in the U.S. military has liked the end result of the military conflicts we've been in: Vietnam, Korea, certainly Iraq, and probably Afghanistan. But in a democracy, you salute.

I may be wrong in that, but not I think in putting the questions. In our modern democracy the government needs not a unanimous but a general support for war before it orders our forces to fight.

It is often noted that it can be hard for democracies to fight wars because of changing public opinion.

Present and future conditions will determine the American public’s attitude on this war.

I believe in war, if the people want war. They have to do the fighting. I believe, first, in a referendum to the people, and failing that, a decision by the people's representatives in Congress assembled.

I would never seek foreign conflicts just to distract attention from domestic difficulties; that would be frivolous.

The professed war-weariness among populations who have sent only a small percentage of their sons and daughters to fight in recent wars may derive from a failure to communicate effectively what is at stake in those wars and explain why the efforts are worthy of the risks, resources, and sacrifices necessary to sustain the strategy.

The military people don't like it; the government probably doesn't like it, but the people should know what they're sending their young people into when they permit their governments to declare war and engage in war.

When Americans support using our military abroad, they want to see a clear plan. They want to know what they need to do and when - and policymakers want to know that there's broad public support for the effort.

Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively, and if after all of this time, and all of this sacrifice, and all of this support, there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past.

Less than 1 percent of American have served in 12 years of war, and serious public conversation about military policy is sorely lacking.

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.

I suppose it is the lot of soldiers and Marines to be objectified according to the politics of the day and the mood of the American people about their war.

Our national aims can be realized only by military means. The matter needs no further elaboration or interpretation.

The sustaining populace, on whose behalf wars are prosecuted, must be sufficiently convinced that its cause is just, that its wars are winnable and that the costs are not disproportionate.

America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad …. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being…. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization.

If war were declared tonight and I went on a talk show, the first question would be about abortion.

To crush an insurgency you have to have political support from the society in which the insurgency operates.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

The United States seems inextricably committed to a long, inconclusive war. The Communists can prolong it for years.... But it is too late to disengage; our prestige has been committed. Washington says we will stay until the finish.

In 2 wars [Afghanistan and Iraq] victory seemed to be measured not in terms of when the United States would prevail, but by when it would be able to leave.

War on terrorism reflects, in my view, a rather narrow and extremist vision of foreign policy for a superpower and for a great democracy with genuinely idealistic traditions.

You have an administration which understands America's international responsibilities and interests, but you have a population which is anxious, tired, and doesn't want to bear any burden and pay any price. And that's very difficult for whoever becomes president.

I've known Don since he came to Washington. When he first came to work for George W. Bush, he was a different Don Rumsfeld. He was jolly, full of life, and ready to go to war, but only if we could win.