John Milius Quotes

Blunders are an inescapable feature of war, because choice in military affairs lies generally between the bad and the worse.

The biggest problem was the politicians knew nothing about fighting a war.

To go to war, you must always think of, can you win?

All military history records the triumphs of discipline and courage far more frequently than numbers and resources

Damn it all, the business of an army is to win the way, not quibble around with a lot of cheap buying. Hell and Marih! We weren't trying to keep a set of books, we were trying to win a war.

Military decisions are much more difficult and more often wrong than civilian decisions.

The object of a general is not to fight, but to conquer: he fights enough who obtains the victory.

In my day, we had mastered high-intensity conflict, which is why I think we were so successful in Desert Shield, Desert Storm, and then eventually the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

General Custer was a close observer and student of personal character.

What we have to remember is we want to utilize the tremendous intellect that we have in the military to win wars. I've talked to a lot of the generals, a lot of our advanced people. And believe me, if we gave them the mission, which is what the commander-in-chief does, they would be able to carry it out.

I like generals. I like Napoleon. I like strategy. The majority of them are praised for mass destruction, but it's exciting to see how it comes to the mind mentally.

If the tanks succeed, then victory follows.

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

As the First World War made painfully clear, when politicians and generals lead nations into war, they almost invariably assume swift victory, and have a remarkably enduring tendency not to foresee problems that, in hindsight, seem obvious.

Secretary Rumsfeld used to represent parts of our district in the 1960s. I think that he and his team have done a masterful job in defeating Iraqi forces quickly and decisively.

He's a novice, but he's had these - he's experienced in leadership in tight circumstances. He started - he dropped the first bomb, led the first air strike into North Vietnam.

The country is going to ruin for a want of a proper Head to the War Department.

The enemy would not have been in danger if Mr. Stanton had been in the field.

The military mind always imagines that the next war will be on the same lines as the last.

Victory in war depends on the morale of the masses which are shedding their blood on the battlefield.

Terrour ... makes short warres

Very few men occupy themselves with the higher problems of war...when they arrive at the command of armies they are totally ignorant, and, in default of knowing what should be done, they do what they know.

Not only military leaders are sometimes guilty of designing a war as if it were a bridge that only spans half a river, civilian leaders may initiate military campaigns without being troubled by the fact that they have no plan to bring their war to a close.

Whenever we get involved in a war, the White House seems to have 3 priorities: We cannot appear to be losing; we must appear to be winning; we must look like we know what we are doing.