Keith B. Alexander Quotes

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

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.

A sane person doesn't think war is a good idea. I'm not a pacifist. I feel that there are situations where fighting is inescapable, but we don't go looking for those things.

I’m not opposed to all wars; just dumb wars.

A rational fear of an imminent danger is said to be a justifiable cause of war.

Every aspect of war is political.

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

War as Napoleon knew it just not possible any more. However, we're very unlikely to accept or recognize 'world peace' even when we get it.

War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.

We all say no to war, we are all for justice and peace. But sometimes in order to maintain peace, armed action is necessary. But we hope it won't be the case.

Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.

I think, unfortunately, we live in a world where people attack other people and I think a legitimate rationale for war is the saving of human life, the saving of lives of people who cannot defend themselves.

War is not, in itself, a condition so much as the symptom of a condition - that of international anarchy.

We try very quickly to show that we are not at war with the Iraqi people. We're trying to deal with the people who are indeed themselves at war with the Iraqi people.

You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause.

Moreover, if the territorial state is to continue as the last word in the development of society, then war is inevitable.

Peace enforcement is a much more difficult kind of operation than peacekeeping.

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

As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.

I don’t oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots. Or of patriotism. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.

If the United States were attacked by rockets from one of our neighboring countries, we would be a lot tougher on them than Israel has been on the Palestinians. When we were attacked, we sent an army abroad and took over Afghanistan from the Taliban.

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.

Anybody who has experienced war will never want to do it again unless they have to. But if we’re going to do it, we have to be damn good at it.

Let us face squarely the paradox that the world which goes to war is a world, usually, genuinely desiring peace.

War is not merely a state of things under which ordinary principles of government and normal peaceful intercourse between peoples come to an end. It is a state of things created by the importation into national and international life of new factors altogether.