Nicholas Kristof Quotes

We had eight years of Barack Obama depleting our military, ignoring a lot of the threats around the world.

We need a very strong military to protect the freedoms we do have.

I believe the military should be wary of diplomacy until war is declared; then the State Department should keep its nose out and let the military do whatever is necessary to win.

We won't always have the strongest military.

Less than 1 percent of American have served in 12 years of war, and serious public conversation about military policy is sorely lacking.

The Defense Department has a great deal of influence on foreign policy, and State has very little impact on defense policy.

Our military structure and tactics have been designed more to protect the service interest than the national interest.

The military capabilities of the United States need to be kept comfortably superior to those of present and potential enemies. But they should be measured relatively, against those enemies’ capabilities, and not against the limit of what is technologically possible or based on some vague urge to have more.

It may safely be asserted that the art of war will soon be reduced to a simple question of expenditure and credit, and that the largest purse will be the strongest arm.

Japan is the only country in the world that does not call its defense organizations a military. That is absurd, when the government is spending 5 trillion yen a year for self-defense.

You're not hearing people like Madeleine Albright argue that the budget of the State Department should be as large as the Defense Department. The Pentagon is going to be larger by its nature. It's going to have more people.

The military is arguably the most significant social institution in our country.

I don't live under the illusion we don't need a military to protect this country.

The world relies upon, and America must rely upon, a strong military.

A military starved of resources, training, and equipment will not long be able to protect the country physically or economically.

If the military is to show the capabilities that we demand and expect of it, then the defense budget has to continue to rise.

For far too long we have continued to mark our military prowess by the size of our forces: believing that numbers of ships, planes, and brigades is what most matters - just like during the Cold War.

Our country represents nothing but peaceful intentions toward all the earth, but it ought not to fail to maintain such a military force as comports with the dignity and security of a great people.

The world spends two trillion dollars a year on military, and of that two trillion the United States spends one trillion. We have a bigger military than the rest of the world put together. We have 150 foreign military bases.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump basically share a policy of brute military strength. And both, I think, make a lot of Americans uneasy about our foreign policy going forward, which needs a frank discussion. Likewise on the issue of student debt and the future of our younger generation.

We increased expenses, particularly in two areas: the military. If I put somebody in harm's way, they're going to get the best, as far as I'm concerned.

The biggest budget is the military budget. For what? We're fighting two wars in very small countries that have no nuclear weapons, that have no capabilities to destroy anything. They probably couldn't even get to America.

Official Washington cannot tell the American people that the real purpose of its gargantuan military expenditures and belligerent interventions is to make the world safe for General Motors, General Electric, General Dynamics, and all the other generals.

The mythology of the Reagan presidency is that he induced the collapse of the Soviet Union by luring it into unsustainable military spending and wars: should there come a point when we think about applying that lesson to ourselves?

Our military and the strength of our military and the strengthening of our military is a number one priority for the Trump administration.