Bob Ainsworth Quotes

My dad was in the Swedish armed forces, he was always reading up on different weapons from the Americans and Soviets. When I was a kid, I was in bed looking at his books, reading about the Red Army. So I was very aware of it. I had an interest in military matters ever since.

The art of making war with success being the fruit of courage combined with prudence, intelligence and experience, a companion in arms of the great Frederick, who was with him during twenty-two years, seemed to us all a man most fit to assist Monsieur Washington.

I'm a military history buff.

We all know that in war the political and military factors have to complement each other.

My father-in-law was once Chairman of Military Affairs in the Senate, the latter part of the Wilson Administrations. He knew a lot about and was fond of the Army.

As not infrequently happens in the affairs of war, it is easier to point out mistakes after they are committed, than to see and avoid them amid the difficulties and dangers by which the military commander is at the moment surrounded.

Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans, the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces, the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field, and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.

I'm a professor of national security studies, and I know a lot more about fighting than Rumsfeld does.

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

War is much too serious a thing to be left to military men.

Success in past U.S. conflicts has not been strictly the result of military leadership but rather the judgment of the president in choosing generals and setting broad strategy.

I'm saying this as a Republican: In the White House, the effort that goes in and wherever these decisions are made, as to limit civilian casualties, is more probably than any in the history of the world, especially when you consider the history of warfare.

We have long possessed the art of war and the science of war, which have been evolved in the minutest detail.

What we have to remember is we want to utilize the tremendous intellect that we have in the military to win wars. I've talked to a lot of the generals, a lot of our advanced people. And believe me, if we gave them the mission, which is what the commander-in-chief does, they would be able to carry it out.

The power to wage war is the power to wage war successfully.

The biggest problem was the politicians knew nothing about fighting a war.

The Cox Report documents a systematic, well-planned effort by the Chinese military at the highest levels to target and acquire technology for military modernization.

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.

Warfare evolves. It changes as a result of technology. It changes as the culture changes.

Wars are fought for political considerations. Military victory alone is never enough

Military decisions are much more difficult and more often wrong than civilian decisions.

A steady hand in military affairs is more requisite than in peace, because an error committed in war may prove irremediable.

War is the great auditor of military institutions.

The Artillery Barrage: The last reasoning of Kings.

It's important to study and understand your responsibilities within any profession, but it's particularly important for military officers to read, think, discuss, and write about the problem of war and warfare so they can understand not just the changes in the character of warfare but also the continuities.