Eddie Bernice Johnson Quotes

I don't run a democracy. I train troops to defend democracy.

Especially right after 9/11. Especially when the war in Afghanistan is going on. There was a real sense that you don't get that critical of a government that's leading us in war time.

For weeks after 9/11 you could smell the dust and pulverised concrete in New York, and the National Guard came in, so there was a military presence on the streets. It was intense. Overwhelming. Heartbreaking.

Where I would fault President Bush the most was that, in the wake of 9/11, he motivated our military, but he didn't call the nation into a state of war. And he didn't explain that this would take though a communal effort against common foe.

Think of what happened after 9/11, the minute before there was any assessment, there was glee in the administration because now we can invade Iraq, and so the war drums beat.

What a country calls its vital... interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war.

The volunteer system must be replaced … Let us not be blind to the realities … The day we could put guns into the hands of citizen soldiers, teach the manual of arms and send them to match their spirit and brawn against an enemy has passed.

Nobody wants to go to war, but the burden of service cannot fall only on volunteers who, are attracted to the military for financial reasons.

The Principle aim of physical education is military heroism

It is fundamentally wrong—and cowardly—in a democratic society to claim that those who stand between us and a potential enemy should be risking their lives simply because they are ‘following the marketplace’ and the military is their ‘best deal’.

Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.

Making America great again begins with making our military great again.

The only way we're going to keep America safe is to have an elite military, all right.

In reference to the Army and Navy, lately employed with so much distinction on active service, care shall be taken to insure the highest condition of efficiency; and in furtherance of that object, the Military and Naval Schools, sustained by the liberality of Congress, shall receive the special attention of the Executive.

'Post 9/11 Blues' is an observational satire about the surreal circus of fear at that time. It's a generational thing.

At a time when this country needs a good military, the last thing we need to be doing is turning out of our military of people who served and then bringing in people who are illegally in the country.

Our military members should be able to defend themselves here and abroad.

Without music, we wouldn't have an Army.

Iraq broke our back in terms of counterterrorism. There's no doubt about it. The first thing, though, that hurt us was the fact that the U.S. military was absolutely unprepared to do anything on 9/11 - or 9/12 or 9/13. And by the time we actually attacked Afghanistan, al Qaeda and the Taliban had dispersed.

A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very easy to govern. It demands no social reform. It does not haggle over expenditures for armaments and military equipment. It pays without discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of gain.

It is not an army that we must train for war; it is a nation.

I think the vast majority of Americans would have supported military action to stop the second plane from hitting the World Trade Center, if that had been possible. I would have been among them.

Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.

I think military is a very special thing.

As Americans we've gotta make sure that we begin to rebuild and get our military the resources they need to defend us.