Laura Bush Quotes

This year's Veterans Day celebration is especially significant as our country remains committed to fighting the War on Terror and as brave men and women are heroically defending our homeland.

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.

With a nation at war against terrorism and our men and women on the front line defending our homeland from abroad, resources need to be prioritized and allocated properly.

Sending our young men and women into battle is perhaps the most serious course of action a Nation can undertake.

As far as this citizen is concerned, the decision to commit men and women, who are also sons and daughters, to combat is an extraordinarily important one, and not to be done to just feel good; to be done to absolutely accomplish a mission.

During a time of war, we ask our troops to give their best even to the point of sacrificing their own lives. When compared against that, how much of a sacrifice is it for a president to engage in a possibly contentious debate with Congress about whether military action is a good idea?

I can tell you this: If I'm ever in a position to call the shots, I'm not going to rush to send somebody else's kids into a war.

I was told my son was killed in the war on terror. He was killed by George Bush's war of terror on the world.

No two wars are ever the same. Some are just, some are unjust, but the basic commonality shared between them all is that young men and women heeded a call to service, overcame their fear, and fought for their side.

The dedication of the United States Air Force, Special Forces, and others involved in the mission to tracking down terrorists can not be matched. We express our gratitude to these men and women who defend the freedom America represents.

We are today, in this country, convulsed by the situation in Iraq. It is an extraordinary crisis. It is taxing our men and women in uniform, and it is certainly taxing our resolve.

We are so appreciative of the men and women in uniform who are protecting us, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq or on ships around the world. For our security, they are taking the offensive to the terrorists overseas.

Overseas, America's fighting men and women have been waging war against those who would attack America and plunge the world into a period of darkness, and their success can easily be seen.

With this realization, came a growing need for men and women willing to take up arms in an effort to protect our American way of life and the freedoms so many of our ancestors died to entrench.

We've got to protect our young men and women and we've got to win that, whatever the cost.

Revenge by young men is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war, and mothers who have sons to lose, know better.

Our men and women in uniform deserve the best intelligence possible to help them protect America.

The men and women on the front lines of the war on terror continue to risk their lives to save ours - and for that we owe them a debt that we can never truly repay. Thanks to their efforts we have made tremendous progress. Yet, the job is not done.

The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.

As long as every generation rises to its challenges and stands up in defense of liberty - as Americans have done in the past and as our men and women continue to do today - our nation will remain free and strong.

You don't need to be for or against the war to provide morale and support to the men and women who are fighting over seas. These are human beings who are doing a service.

War, I have always said, forces men to change their standards, regardless of whether their country has won or lost.

Where I would fault President Bush the most was that, in the wake of 9/11, he motivated our military, but he didn't call the nation into a state of war. And he didn't explain that this would take though a communal effort against common foe.

War is fear cloaked in courage.

A leader who does not hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.