Andrew J. Bacevich Quotes

We wanted this war and now we've got it, and I'm not sure that we know what to do with it.

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

War is failure of diplomacy.

It is easy to get into war, not so easy to get out.

We have won an armistice on a single battleground, not peace in the world. We may not now relax our guard nor cease our quest.

It’s damn easy to get into a war, but damned harder to extricate yourself once you get in.

Americans have learned that it is harder to end wars than it is to begin them

War is regarded as nothing but the continuation of state policy with other means.

Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you…

We’re not declaring war. We haven’t declared war since the Second World War. We’re going to war.

That was a declaration of war

Haven’t we learned that when you go to war, the outcome is unpredictable.

For WAR, consisteth not in Battle only, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to content by Battle is sufficiently known.... So the nature of War, consisteth not in actual fighting; but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is PEACE.

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

We are not at war with Egypt. We are in an armed conflict.

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

As someone who has seen war first hand, and as a father of three young adults, it was my hope that we could have resolved this conflict and disarmed Saddam Hussein without war. However, this was not the case.

All war represents a failure of diplomacy.

We make war that we may live in peace.

It is far easier to make war than peace.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations.

I don't know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace an interlude during war.

A bad peace is even worse than war.

In case of war, a treaty would have to be made at the end of the war.