War Costs Quotes

Endless money forms the sinews of war. Nervi belli pecunia infinita.

… war is a matter not so much of arms as of money

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

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

There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.

If we can afford tremendous sums of money to win the war, we can afford to invest whatever amount it takes to win the peace

The sinews of war are infinite money.

The most expensive deterrent pales in comparison to the least expensive conflict. Deterrence is hard, but war is hell.

Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in honors and emoluments, is the height of inhumanity.

Our adversaries must see diplomacy as their best option because war with the United States will force them to bear enormous costs.

Be skeptical of concepts that divorce war from its political nature, particularly those that promise fast, cheap victory through technology.

Today we're faced with over 500 casualties, a cost of over $200 billion. And it could rise - the casualties could go into thousands and the cost could go over half a trillion - if we stay there for years.

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed — for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it. Now.

I have absolutely no regret about my vote against this war. The same questions remain. The cost in human lives, the cost to our budget, probably 100 billion. We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less.

Two great and terrible truths of war are these: War is easy to enter into, but difficult to end. And ultimately, in war there are no winners.

In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department. ... War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement. In war, a physical force is to be created; and it is the executive will which is to direct it. In war, the public treasures are to be unlocked; and it is the executive hand which is to dispense them. ... It is in war, finally, that laurels are to be gathered, and it is the executive brow they are to encircle. The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venial love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace

The ongoing strife in Iraq, and the billions of dollars that the President is seeking to continue that war, give me little comfort that this Administration has learned from its mistakes in Iraq.

We were lied into both wars in every aspect - the reasons for going in, the prospects, the length, the scale and the probable costs in lives and dollars

It's much cheaper to influence elections than it is to go to war.

There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.

There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.

As a soldier, I stand ready to serve and protect and defend this country. And as a soldier, I know the cost of war. And as president and commander-in-chief, I will end these regime-change wars.

We have sent our troops to war without paying for it. Now, we are bringing them home without saying how we are paying for it.

France has imposed upon herself an average of more than 2 billion francs a year. This is the minimum price of armed peace for one country only …. Think what United Europe might have done with these millions, had she consecrated even half to the service of progress.

When downed American pilots were first taken prisoner in North Vietnam in 1964, U.S. policy became pretty much to ignore them - part and parcel of President Lyndon B. Johnson's determination to keep the costs of his increasingly futile military escalation in Southeast Asia from the public.