Cost of War Quotes

The most expensive peace is far less costly than the cheapest war.

The people who are sending our men and women in uniform into conflict need to understand that there are some things worth fighting for, but also understand the high cost of war.

War's an auction where whoever can pay the most in damage and still be standing wins.

… war by its nature entails terrible injustice to many individuals and that acceptance of that injustice as the lesser evil is implicit in any decision to send the military into combat.

War is never cheap or easy.

The war in Iraq has been very, very expensive - partly because the Administration tried to keep the apparent costs down. But the benefits have been elusive at best - partly because the ostensible reasons for going war were unconnected with reality - no weapons of mass destruction, no connections with 9/11.

If it costs ten years, and ten to recover the general prosperity, the destruction of the South is worth so much.

Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later.

It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.

It was in our power to set high price for our blood, a price too high for the Arab community, the Arab army, or the Arab governments to think it worth paying.

While this debate today is a belated effort to inform the American people, it is nevertheless an empty gesture. It is time to admit our mistake in Iraq and begin to bring our troops home with honor.

I'm no military expert, and these figures might not be exactly right,' I said. 'But as best I can tell, we've launched 114 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Afghanistan so far. Now take the cost of one of those missiles, tipped with a Raytheon guidance system, which I think is about $840,000. For that much money, you could build dozens of schools that could provide tens of thousands of students with a balanced, non extremist education over the course of a generation. Which do you think will make us more secure?

We know something of the cost of that war. We were in it from December seventh, '41, till August of '45. Ever since that time, we have been waging peace. It has had its ups and downs just as the war did.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

You measure peace with guns, progress in megatons. Who's left when the war is won?

My subject is war, and the pity of war.

This much have I learned: A man's life weighs more than glory, and a price paid in blood is a heavy reckoning.

There's a financial cost, but the only costs that are ever real are the costs of our soldiers.

Battles are never the end of war; for the dead must be buried and the cost of the conflict must be paid.

This war so far has cost us $125 billion and counting, because largely we decided to do it on our own, with only the United Kingdom as a paying, fully participating partner.

The historic lesson is that it was a strategic failure to go into Iraq. History will not be and should not be kind with that decision.

If a witch needs something, another witch will give it to her. If there is war to be fought, we don't consider cost one of the factors in deciding whether or not it is right to fight. Nor do we have any notion of honor. An insult to a bear is a deadly thing. To us...inconceivable. How could you insult a witch? What would it matter if you did?

We are spending $1 billion a week in Iraq.

America is a great nation, but it cannot spend blood and treasure endlessly.

I've seen firsthand the high human cost of war.