Noam Chomsky Quotes

We should declare war on North Vietnam. We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.

Every war I have ever covered – Kosovo, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Liberia – withstood all diplomatic efforts to end it until Western military action finally forced a resolution.

There must be pressure on Moscow so that we have negotiations. Moscow will not succeed by unilaterally backing Bashar al-Assad.

My attempt and prayer are and will be for an honorable peace between belligerent nations in the least possible time.

Russians can give you arms but only the United States can give you a solution.

We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement.

When envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths, it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce.

Diplomacy in general does not resolve conflicts. Wars end not due to peace processes, but due to one side giving up.

Whatever efforts for peace President Gorbachev had in mind, they were pretty substantially undercut very swiftly by Saddam Hussein.

Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it... You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.

There has not yet been a major ground offensive battle... There are, we know, negotiations going on between the opposition forces and the Taliban leadership for surrender.

It is the hope of the European Union that Ariel Sharon will keep the peace process alive and continue the dialogue according to the wishes of all the parties involved.

I have only been seeking to get them to the negotiating table and, thank God, that's where they are.

And we ought to work our diplomacy first and I think it's a reason it's going to respond increasingly to our diplomacy particularly with the president's direct involvement in the peace process, and I think that's extraordinarily important.

In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.

Once this key conflict is eased, it will have a huge impact on the world. It will take time to find a solution. It's similar to the situation between East and the West at the time of my flight.

Warfare is an utterly stupid method of settling differences of interest between different nations.

I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle.

War is failure of diplomacy.

There is not going to be a peace process unless there is talks involving Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas, and I think everyone knows that.

I've been arguing this for months. This is not our war. This is not a war we should be in. Australia's better spending its time negotiating with North Korea.

On the contrary, I tried on numerous occasions to convince the American president not to go to war. I did what was within my capabilities to avoid that happening.

I agree with the President that second-guessing is not a strategy, but at the same time, I want to continue the dialogue that ultimately will lead to bringing all of our troops home.

I believe Johnson understood that the reason was Vietnam. I also believe that he felt that if there was a way to communicate the real issues in Vietnam, that the reasons would be answered or understood. But there was just no way to communicate.

But critics of the war have no reason to regret their views.