Christopher Shays Quotes

This gulf war syndrome thing is truly unfortunate, and I've met some of the vets who have this. These are my guys, and I feel terrible about it.

We’re not going to need as many people to do peacekeeping as we needed to fight the war.

The study also included the disturbing revelation that most of the troops who reported having mental health problems also reported that they did not seek or did not receive care for their problems.

After a big war a nation doesn't want another for a generation or more.

Our poverty will be brought home to us to its full extent only after the war.

Even under the best of circumstances, the road back from war is difficult.

Sure we won the war, but the peace we’re losing badly.

A war is not won if the defeated enemy has not been turned into a friend.

It is not possible to teach an entire generation to bomb and destroy others in an undeclared, unjustified war abroad without paying the price in the derangement of our own society.

After the war [WW I], the soul of the people will be so maimed and so injured that it is horrible to think of.

A war is only as good as the peace that follows.

It was in the early spring of 1871 when we entered Paris in one of the first trains that had arrived in that city since the suppression of the Commune. It was dark when we detrained and when we asked for a cab we were laughed at; the porter asked of what use a cab would be since all the horses had been eaten. We were also told that all the famous hotels whose names we remembered had been converted into hospitals.

We have to go in and win this war quickly, and then be prepared to help stabilize Iraq over an indefinite period, five to ten years, at a minimum, I believe, using a large fraction of American forces. This is a major undertaking that likely would require a total of 150,000 troops and could stay above 100,000 for several years

The possibility of the United States winning the war and losing the peace is real and serious

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

We’d continue to pay them. Using army allows us not to demobilize it immediately and put a lot of unemployed people on the street.

I don’t see why it would take more troops to occupy the country than to take down the regime.

Make common cause with the South and refuse to allow passage of Union troops through the city.

In spite of all that happened at Hamburg, bombing proved a relatively humane method

There are no American combat troops in Cambodia. There are no American combat advisers in Cambodia. There will be no American combat troops or advisers in Cambodia.

The cost of war is hard to count.

I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women and children. They were all classified as the same, and that's the classification that we dealt with over there, just as the enemy. I felt then and I still do that I acted as I was directed, and I carried out the order that I was given and I do not feel wrong in doing so.

Part of ending any war responsibly is to support those who fought it

War isn't civilized. War is failure. It's the ultimate result of a breakdown in public policy, and soldiers are the machines that handle that breakdown. In warfare, you're taught to do whatever you have to, to stay alive.

Worse than war is the very fear of war.