Dick Cheney Quotes

If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism.

No choice was left but to call out the war power of the Government; and so to resist force, employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation.

It would be immoral to walk away from the consequences of our actions, leaving behind anarchy and civil war in Iraq.

If the United Nations would not take responsibility in time of peril, by what right should it claim authority when the danger is passed.

Anybody who has experienced war will never want to do it again unless they have to. But if we’re going to do it, we have to be damn good at it.

I think, unfortunately, we live in a world where people attack other people and I think a legitimate rationale for war is the saving of human life, the saving of lives of people who cannot defend themselves.

Countries that intervene militarily rarely do so out of pure altruism.

War is the ultimate tool of politics.

I think that war is diplomacy by other means, for sure, and there have been wars that have been fought for righteous reasons. There are wars that have had to be fought, and there will probably continue to be.

We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.

I’m not opposed to all wars; just dumb wars.

We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years … and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home … to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.

I don’t care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass.

We are talking about using military force, but we are not talking about war. I think that is an important distinction.

Law stands mute in the midst of arms

Let the natural process of war among nations smother the weak.

Military force is not the first option, but it is there if needed.

The United States of America never goes to war because we want to, we only go to war because we have to.

We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations—acting individually or in concert—will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.

… the financial cost of a [military] strike isn’t a reason to acquiesce in mass murder in Syria.

Is a military solution the only way to stop nations from doing bad things?

It’s not only time to It is time not to take force off the table… It is time to put force on the table and use it

Every decision to use military force is an excruciatingly difficult one.

There is a difference between myself and some of the peace people in Europe: whereas they think that the ultimate evil in the world is war, I think the ultimate evil in the world is aggression, and aggression sometimes must be repelled by force.

One of the most persistent ambiguities that we face is that everybody talks about peace as a goal. However, it does not take sharpest-eyed sophistication to discern that while everbody talks about peace, peace has become practically nobody's business among the power-wielders. Many men cry Peace! Peace! but they refuse to do the things that make for peace.