Golda Meir Quotes

There is no bigger judgment for a president of the United States than how you take a nation to war.

In the earlier days of history, kings and leaders went to the battlefield with their men; but today, those who determine that a nation will go to war remain safely behind. The next time leaders talk of warring, all the people should get together and send those leaders to the front lines. Give them a big arena with wonderfully effective ammunition, and the war will be finished in a day

We would like to see new leaders come forward who would be accountable and responsible, who would succeed in ending the terror and the violence. And it is up to the Palestinian people to judge who those new leaders should be.

WHEN we don't get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don't blame the soldiers.

One cannot be arraigned for declaring a war, which every ruler has to do once in a while, but only for running a war badly.

The Leader will be a person with the management skills to coordinate the activities of the Team, and to assure that the Team remains faithful to the objectives of the incoming President.

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.

If the president is going to use so much language of theology and the Bible, then let's use that language for a serious discussion about the war in Iraq. And that was never done.

My personal missteps - how many Americans have died as a result of that? None. Other than my family, how many victims were there? None. And yet, in refusing to engage in a responsible debate about Iraq, how many Americans died? Thousands. And America seems to have no problem with that.

Justice can help reduce sexual violence: bringing to justice those soldiers responsible for sexual violence discourages other soldiers from committing such crimes.

As the Palestinian leadership never seems to pay any penalty for its words, America's seriousness about the peace process is in doubt.

I was no longer the man whose mistake could involve the world in war.

When soldiers break the law in a combat situation the commanding officer can hold them accountable, but he cannot do so if military contractors break the law.

I am a combat leader. As such I am responsible for everything that is done in my unit. I just wish that our civilian leaders would accept the same kind of responsibility.

Who wants to be a war President? I don’t. But this is what came our way.

Gentlemen of the Congress of the United States who put us into this war, it is your duty now to give us sufficient means of making war. If the folks at home did not want you to go to war, it was your duty to think of that before you declared war. It is in no way right or reasonable or wise or patriotic for you to project the Nation into war, and then in unfounded fear for your own future, deny the Nation the method best qualified and calculated to make victorious war.

Aside from the Punic Wars, which I was too young for, I have been blamed for everything.

As a former member of the IRA, I accept all the responsibilities that are due to me. But in terms of the individual circumstances, I don't comment on that.

In conflict zones in particular, we need personnel who wear the badge of the United States, are a part of our official military command, and are always held accountable for their actions.

During a time of war, we ask our troops to give their best even to the point of sacrificing their own lives. When compared against that, how much of a sacrifice is it for a president to engage in a possibly contentious debate with Congress about whether military action is a good idea?

As a soldier, I stand ready to serve and protect and defend this country. And as a soldier, I know the cost of war. And as president and commander-in-chief, I will end these regime-change wars.

We have a responsibility to ensure the Palestinian Authority is abiding by U.S. law with total transparency.

I think we all have to ask ourselves, as leaders, do we have the right processes in place for complaints to be filed and for people to feel protected?

President Abbas and myself, we are the ones who signed the Oslo agreement, so we really know each other, not just theoretically.

The Iraq war can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically, and the president needs to come to that realization.