Phil Bredesen Quotes

Wars should be over in three days or less... and the American people must be all for it from the outset.

I thought that the administration needed bipartisan support, and I was for our commander-in-chief. Because I felt at that time it was the right thing do. If I knew then what I know now, I would have never voted for the war.

I voted no on the resolution to give the president authority to go to war against Iraq. I was able to apply caveat emptor. Most of my colleagues could not.

I think we still have a chance if we continue with our work, if Iraq provides full cooperation, we should still be able to avoid a war.

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.

War is too serious a matter to entrust to military men.

War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.

I do not believe, given her past decisions and comments on the reasons to go to war in Iraq, that Dr. Rice will be able to represent the United States without a predetermined bias from the war.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

Either a war has to be fought, or it doesn't.

Yes, politics IS war without bloodshed; and war is an extension of those politics.

I still think it would be a great mistake to go into a war without support of our friends and allies.

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

Britain, along with the U.S.A., is war weary, and after the travesty of Iraq and Afghanistan, has grave misgivings in any future involvement in the Middle East. The ghost of Tony Blair and his single-minded determination to attack Iraq, at any cost, has cast a long shadow over British politics. The British public have a long collective memory.

Democracies do not go to war. War is not our expression of thought.

Take the diplomacy out of war and the thing would fall flat in a week.

Our opponent and many in Congress criticized our decision to end the Iraq war.

The decision to go to war is the most important decision that I can make as a representative in Congress. As a veteran, I see any potential military action first through the eyes of the young men and women who volunteered to wear the uniform and would carry out such a mission.

War is never a solution; it is an aggravation.

Politicians do not enter into wars lightly. It is usually the military themselves who are keener to become involved.

For the maintenance of peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks which forerun cannon shots.

The only alternative is war or national dishonor; and between these two, what American can hesitate.

It is not every cause of war that should lead to war.

We talk a great deal about war and do nothing.

Thinking about the war now and the occupation later is not an acceptable solution.