Lewis MacKenzie Quotes

We are talking about using military force, but we are not talking about war. I think that is an important distinction.

I'm really interested in how conflicts arise and how they reach points of no return. I'm no pacifist. Sometimes force is necessary. But war is a choice.

I didn't promote war when I was a weapons inspector.

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

War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.

I think, unfortunately, we live in a world where people attack other people and I think a legitimate rationale for war is the saving of human life, the saving of lives of people who cannot defend themselves.

War is the ultimate tool of politics.

We try very quickly to show that we are not at war with the Iraqi people. We're trying to deal with the people who are indeed themselves at war with the Iraqi people.

We're not going to baby sit a civil war.

We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years … and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home … to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.

We must strive to restrain the destructive force of war, while recognizing its inexorable necessities

It makes no difference who says that our objective is peace, even if he be the President of the United States. Our actions speak louder than words, and our actions in Asia today are the actions of warmaking.

Military force is not the first option, but it is there if needed.

Wherever there's injustice, oppression, and suffering, America will show up six months late and bomb the country next to where it's happening.

What I have learned about Afghanistan is that force carries more weight than anything else.

… the financial cost of a [military] strike isn’t a reason to acquiesce in mass murder in Syria.

Is a military solution the only way to stop nations from doing bad things?

Anybody who has experienced war will never want to do it again unless they have to. But if we’re going to do it, we have to be damn good at it.

War is murder ., The word “murderer” should be embroidered in red letters across the breast of every soldier. I will devote my life to fight this spirit of militarism.

If you use weapons of war to bring about peace, you're going to have more war and destruction.

It would be immoral to walk away from the consequences of our actions, leaving behind anarchy and civil war in Iraq.

All war aims for impunity.

War as Napoleon knew it just not possible any more. However, we're very unlikely to accept or recognize 'world peace' even when we get it.

There are laws for peace as well as war.

Nothing can justify war.