Howard Zinn Quotes

The major wars that the U.S. became involved in are all ethically defensible.

I feel like war should occur only for the most vital and necessary reasons, and only then.

I think that war is diplomacy by other means, for sure, and there have been wars that have been fought for righteous reasons. There are wars that have had to be fought, and there will probably continue to be.

Generically, wars in necessity are wars where, I think, the vital interest of the nation are at stake, in which there are no viable alternatives to the use of force.

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.

You can't tell me that all the wars we are fighting are in America's national security interest.

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.

What is the 'noble cause' for which you sent our country to war?

It is not every cause of war that should lead to war.

The Great Seal was an early proclamation of 'humanitarian intervention,' to use the currently fashionable phrase.

I did not support the U.S. decision to intervene with military force in Libya. The evidence was not persuasive that a large-scale massacre or genocide was either likely or imminent. Policies other than military intervention were never given a full chance.

The utterly fallacious idea at the heart of the pro-war argument is that it is the duty of the anti-war argument to provide an alternative to war. The onus is on them to explain just cause.

Unless a nation's life faces peril, war is murder.

If I took the 40 years of my dad talking to me about war and battles and taking me to battlefields and distilled it down into one question, it would probably be the idea of the necessary or unnecessary war.

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

Americans assume that we never go to war to sustain our wealth, because war must be understood as a moral enterprise commensurate with our being a democracy.

And, perhaps most importantly, regional conflicts will again and again confront us with a cruel choice between costly engagement and costly indifference.

The disagreeable reality for those who believe in human rights is that there are some occasions - and Iraq may be one of them - when war is the only real remedy for regimes that live by terror.

It is one thing to be against unilateralism and against nonhumanitarian interventionism - but it is quite another thing to be against humanitarian interventionism.

People say, 'Surely there's the right reasons for going to war?' And my perspective is, 'Surely there's a better way of asking that question?'

The only defensible war is a war of defense.

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

Law stands mute in the midst of arms

Military intervention is to be considered when all else fails.

Americans must not be given the impression that they have a duty to go to war against every evil leader in the world and against every transgression of the international order.