Jeremy Clarkson Quotes

If I were an Englishman, I should esteem the man who advised a war with China to be the greatest living enemy of my country. You would be beaten in the end, and perhaps a revolution in India would follow.

I certainly am not willing to involve the country in a foreign war for the object of acquiring Texas.

We don't want to fight, But, by Jingo, if we do, We've got the ships, we've got the men We've got the money too.

The United States is proud of her remoteness from the old world, her freedom from entanglement in its quarrels, her isolation. Yet in her relatively very short history as an independent state she has fought at least six foreign wars while her troops have landed on foreign soil on nearly a hundred occasions. Not one of those wars was for the purpose of defending American soil.

I will defend Korea as I would my own country-just as I would California.

Americans will gladly support their president when he attacks nations that sponsor or harbor terrorists. We will even back him in a preemptive war against a country that might attack us. But when we start sending troops around the world to stabilize nations that, if left to disintegrate, might become breeding grounds for terror, it's a step too far for most Americans.

America cannot commit to go to war on behalf of 50 countries around the world because that is the formula that is one day going to break down and break out into war.

I have never understood why the politicians who are most eager to send soldiers into harm's way are always depicted as their most ardent friends.

Judge candidly what a wretched figure the American empire will exhibit in the eye of other nations, without a power to array and support a military force for its own protection.

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.

If Scotland and America go to war, I'm afraid I've already sworn in.

We must use all the tools of American power in resolving disputes, including diplomacy. And we must have sufficient congressional debate and oversight before ever putting another U.S. solider in harm's way.

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.

Our national aims can be realized only by military means. The matter needs no further elaboration or interpretation.

The use of U. S. regular armed forces to oppose the efforts of indigenous communist elements within foreign countries must generally be considered as a risky and profitless undertaking, apt to do more harm than good.

Let American cities be bombarded and razed rather than pay a dollar to any foe for their safety.

Our military is trained to kill our enemies in foreign lands, not to do civilian law enforcement within our country.

No nation has ever ridden to superpower status except on a tide of war and that includes the United States.

With 450,000 U.S. troops now in Vietnam, it is time that Congress decided whether or not to declare a state of war exists with North Vietnam

Never should the word peace fall from the mouths of our highest officials.... With such a country as ours, with her vast areas ... her immense natural resources, and her hundreds of millions of inhabitants, if all would prove their loyalty to their emperor and love of their country, what indeed is there to fear from any strong invader? Let us not think of making peace, nor rely solely upon diplomatic maneuvers.

It is an American tradition that a standing army is a standing menace to liberty; in Jefferson's presidency the army was reduced to 3,000 men. It is American tradition that we keep out of the affairs of other nations. It is American practice that we meddle with the affairs of everybody else from the West to the East Indies, from Russia to Japan; and to do it we have a standing army of 83,251 men.

Any future Defense Secretary who advises the President to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined.

The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government

As an Englishman, particularly as an Englishman standing upon foreign soil, I am, of course, prepared to argue that every war we have ever fought was a purely defensive war. But I am obliged to take cognizance of the quite simple historical fact that for about one thousand years, since the time indeed when Norwegians ravaged our coasts and a certain Scandinavian landed at Hastings in 1066, every war we have fought happens to have been fought in other people's countries. Now if defense means merely keeping burglars out of the house, what were we doing on all those occasions in other people's houses?

The No. 1 purpose of the federal government is national defense.