war duration Quotes

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.

Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.

Were the expense of war to be defrayed always by a revenue raised within the year ... wars would in general be more speedily concluded, and less wantonly undertaken

In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.

Remember that everybody signed up as fast as they could in World War I because they thought the war would be over by Christmas.

Poison gas meant that the war could be brought to an end sooner and thus reduce the number of casualties.

I give it as my fixed opinion, that but for our graduated cadets, the war between the United States and Mexico might, and probably would have lasted some four or five years, with, in its first half, more defeats than victories falling to our share; whereas, in less than two campaigns, we conquered a great country and a peace without the loss of a single battle or skirmish.

MacArthur told Truman that the ‘boys will be home by Christmas’. Truman forgot to ask, ‘which Christmas?’ They are still there today.

I regard it as a foregone conclusion that we shall ultimately whip the Yankees. We are bound to believe that, anyhow; but the war is going to be a long and terrible one, first. We've only just begun it, and very few of us will see the end. All I ask of fate is that I may be killed leading a cavalry charge

We must not allow any president to unleash the dogs of war at his own discretion and for an unlimited period of time.

When we go to war we always make some wrong assumptions. The most common is that the war will be short.

Wars are seldom won as quickly as everyone expects, and almost always create far more problems than they solve

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

Nevertheless, China was unfortunately unable to understand Japan's real position, and it is greatly to be regretted that the Sino-Japanese War became one of long duration.

Since 1775, the average insurgency has lasted 7 years and since 1945 it has lasted 10 years.

Both sides think that they have a good chance of winning. That’s the recipe for a long war.

Terrour ... makes short warres

Our military superiority is so great - it's far greater than it was in the Gulf War, and the Gulf War was over in 100 hours after we bombed for 43 days. And so now they can bomb for a couple of days and then just roll into Baghdad... The odds are there's going to be a war and it's going to be not for very long.

Wars without military objectives have a tendency to go on forever.

As long as tides of war are in our favor, the United States will never stop fighting. As a consequence, the war will continue for several years, during which materiel will be exhausted, vessels and arms will be damaged, and they can be replaced only with great difficulties.

My mother's sympathies were strongly with the Union. She knew that war was bound to come, but so confident was she in the strength of the Federal Government that she devoutly believed that the struggle could not last longer than six months at the utmost.

If you wage war, do it energetically and with severity. This is the only way to make it shorter and consequently less inhuman.

I was disappointed, not because we had lost the war but because our people had allowed it to go on for so many years, instead of heeding the few voices of protest against all that mass insanity and slaughter.

No one is talking about occupying Iraq for five to ten years.

We were told this war would be over in a matter of weeks, and that the Iraqis would be able to finance it with oil sales. We were promised it was not a mission of nation building.