Zadie Smith Quotes

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

I believe in not attacking a country pre-emptively unless you're sure of what you're doing and you're working with allies.

The Liberals have been pressing for the brief on the basis of which he said there was authority for war.

If the president is going to use so much language of theology and the Bible, then let's use that language for a serious discussion about the war in Iraq. And that was never done.

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.

Today, war of necessity is used by critics of military action to describe unavoidable response to an attack like that on Pearl Harbor that led to our prompt, official declaration of war, while they characterize as unwise wars of choice the wars in Korea, Vietnam and the current war in Iraq.

I think we need to ask serious questions about how we engage militarily, when we engage militarily, and on what basis we engage militarily. What kind of intelligence do we have to justify a military engagement?

Formerly, a nation that broke the peace did not trouble to try and prove to the world that it was done solely from higher motives…Now war has a bad conscience. Now every nation assures us that it is bleeding for a human cause, the fate of which hangs in the balance of its victory…No nation dares to admit the guilt of blood before the world.

Governments cannot be denied the right to legitimate self defense once every means of peaceful settlement has been exhausted.

I am against preventive war because it means measures by the UN against us.

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

If we justify war, it is because all peoples always justify the traits of which they find themselves possessed, not because war will bear an objective examination of its merits.

If there is no direct threat why are we invading?

We all say no to war, we are all for justice and peace. But sometimes in order to maintain peace, armed action is necessary. But we hope it won't be the case.

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

The Second World War is and was constantly being drudged up by Blair and Bush to rationalize the invasion of Iraq.

The argument that someone is a bad man is an inadequate argument for war and certainly an inadequate and unacceptable argument for regime change.

War, except in self-defense, is a failure of moral imagination.

For a war to be just three conditions are necessary - public authority, just cause, right motive.

Most wars, after all, present themselves as humanitarian endeavors to help people.

Are there really good wars and bad wars? We thought so during World War II, and in retrospect, we were right. But in Vietnam, and Iraq we were wrong.

You say it is the good cause that hallows even war? I say unto you: it is the good war that hallows any cause.

The only defensible war is a war of defense.

We believe the use of force against Iraq, especially with reference to previous resolutions of the UN Security Council, has no grounds, including legal grounds.