Bob Hawke Quotes

War on terrorism defines the central preoccupation of the United States in the world today, and it does reflect in my view a rather narrow and extremist vision of foreign policy of the world's first superpower, of a great democracy, with genuinely idealistic traditions.

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

The theoretically unrestricted right to develop power, to wage war against other states, is antisocial and is doubly dangerous, because the state as a mass entity represents a low moral and intellectual level.

The decision to go to war is the most important decision that I can make as a representative in Congress. As a veteran, I see any potential military action first through the eyes of the young men and women who volunteered to wear the uniform and would carry out such a mission.

This war is being played in the realm of public opinion and has dire consequences for our soldiers in Iraq, the future of our country, and freedom around the world.

What the American people want to do is fight a war without getting hurt. You can't do that any more than you can get into a barroom fight without getting hurt... Unless the American people are willing to send their sons out to fight an aggressor, there just isn't going to be any United States.

I said it was my feeling that the American people would struggle for peace, and that has since been underscored by the President of these United States.

The war on terror, I believe, will be waged by effective intelligence and police work and cruise missiles.

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.

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.

I don't think that the war serves U.S. interests. I think Osama bin Laden's interests and the Iranian interests are very much served by it, and it's becoming a huge drain on our resources both material and political.

Presidents do not go into war lightly. It's a tremendous responsibility in making decisions, and I know Bush must deeply believe this is the only course.

The President of the United States thinks that for the Japanese opium is more dangerous than war.

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

As the war on terrorism spreads and prolongs, the fruits of ending the threat of terrorism around the world will be tempered with a whole new series of problems to be addressed and resolved.

Victory is the most important aspect in Iraq, because victory in Iraq will help us have victory in the War on Terror.

All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones.

I think in national security, the war in Iraq is troublesome and a difficult challenge, but our troops and the military leaders we have are managing that situation, although it continues to be very risky and very dangerous.

Sure we won the war, but the peace we’re losing badly.

Woe to the statesman whose reason for entering a war do not appear so plausible at its end as at its beginning.

In matters of war, we undermine presidential credibility at our nation’s peril.

Don't let's talk of national honor: what do such phrases mean? The plain fact is that war means the slaughter of millions. If the Prime Minister can still maintain the peace he will have saved those lives, he mustn't be rushed.

You have repeatedly asserted that you and the German people have no desire for war. If this is true there need be no war. Nothing can persuade the peoples of the earth that any governing power has any right or need to inflict the consequences of war on its own or any other people save in the cause of self-evident home defense.

[George W. Bush is] … the most dangerous President in my lifetime.

By invading Iraq, the President has undermined the War on Terrorism.