George McGovern Quotes

I can tell you this: If I'm ever in a position to call the shots, I'm not going to rush to send somebody else's kids into a war.

Declarations of war have never been a constitutional requirement for military action abroad.

I think that, most importantly, when I see issues of war, I see them in a personal vein, and I am reluctant to go to war unless there's a real, valid American interest because I've seen the wounded soldiers.

I supported the war in Afghanistan because 3000 of our people were murdered and I thought we had a right to defend the people of the United States.

No president can easily commit our sons and daughters to war.

As far as this citizen is concerned, the decision to commit men and women, who are also sons and daughters, to combat is an extraordinarily important one, and not to be done to just feel good; to be done to absolutely accomplish a mission.

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.

But do I think that our actions in anyway violate the War Powers Resolution, the answer is no.

If NATO troops will come with ground forces, I will be the first volunteer in the Yugoslav army to defend my country, my family, my children.

I knew we were going to get into this sort of a mess when we went in there. And I don’t see how we’re ever going to get out of it without fighting a major war with the Chinese.

We don't declare war any more, we declare national defense.

On behalf of endangered American interests ….

Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion … and you allow him to make war at pleasure. … If today he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may see no probability he would say to you, “Be silent!, I see if you don’t.”

We in America should see that no man is ever given, no matter how gradually or how noble and excellent the man, the power to put this country into a war

There is going to be no involvement of America in war unless it is the result of the Constitutional process that is placed upon Congress to declare it.

Whenever America sends its citizens into harm's way, it must do so with eyes wide open.

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.

Declarations of war have never been a constitutional requirement for military action abroad. The United States has used force abroad more than 130 times, but has only declared war five times - the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, and World Wars I and II.

The United States has used force abroad more than 130 times, but has only declared war five times - the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, and World Wars I and II.

We are not at war with Egypt. We are in an armed conflict.

Let us recollect that peace or war will not always be left to our option; that however moderate or unambitious we may be, we cannot count upon the moderation, or hope to extinguish the ambition of others.

To send our troops, our ships, our planes to this war is ridiculous.

What I've learned, and will try to remember from now on, is that defending your country's credibility is never sufficient reason to fight a war.

As Commander in Chief of the United States Military, I will never send our sons and daughters and our brothers and sisters to die in a foreign land without telling the truth about why they're going there.

There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.