War Aversion Quotes
In the recent Iraq War, the most aggressive political figures were those who had no military combat experience; those who did tended to be more reticent about the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
2nd Viscount Melbourne. The “American treaty” was the Webster–Ashburton Treaty to adjust the final borders between Canada and the United States that were still in dispute from the War of 1812. Note that the British Prime Minister was critical of the position that was being taken be some British diplomats. In many American negotiations with Russia and others, there are hard liners who believe that the negotiators want too much to preserve peace and are not sufficiently willing to go to war for the nation’s principles and honor. As this quotation shows, this is not just an American phenomenon, but in almost all nations there are hard liners critical of all international negotiations and fearing that a desire for an agreement will undermine the positions that should be taken. This is an example where the hard liners were on the non American side.