John Walker Lindh Quotes
It is considered a major sin to break a contract, if you agreed, especially with military situations.
"Transcript of John Walker Interview." CNN.com, Cable News Network, 21 Dec. 2001.
Despite Lincoln’s instructions, his agents did cut a few deals without which Lincoln would likely not been nominated
Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, tried his hand as a gun manufacturer early in the history of the new nation. He persuaded President Thomas Jefferson that he could manufacture muskets with interchangeable parts in an era where each gun was made uniquely and there were no “spare parts.” So Whitney was the first of the American Defense Contractors. He was also the first to fail to deliver on his contract. His guns were years late and when they were finally delivered, they were very expensive and worse, not very good. The reason that this quotation is cited is that while Irvine was trying to recover the taxpayer’s money, Whitney visited the Secretaries of State and War as well as President Madison and members of Congress. The result was to give Whitney another chance and another big order for 15,000 guns. Even Whitney later admitted that these were not very good. Some argue that this quotation shows that nothing has changed much in military procurement and defense spending.
This humorous quotation has been used in all fields to emphasize the importance of getting agreements in writing.
John Philip Walker Lindh is an American who was captured as an enemy combatant during the United States' invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. He was captured and detained at Qala-i-Jangi fortress, used as a prison. He denied participating in the Battle of Qala-i-Jangi, a violent uprising of the Taliban prisoners, during which all but 86 of the estimated 300–500 prisoners were killed, along with CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann. Brought to trial in United States federal court in February 2002, Lindh accepted a plea bargain; he pleaded guilty to two charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released on supervision on May 23, 2019, for a three-year period of supervised release.
