Prof Andrew Bacevich Quotes

Sometimes, when you can't fix the problem on your own, you need to make some compromises and find the partners who can get the job done for you. ~ Andrew Bacevich

You know, we live in a country where if you want to go bomb somebody, there's remarkably little discussion about how much it might cost, even though the costs almost inevitably end up being orders of magnitude larger than anybody projected at the outcome. But when you have a discussion about whether or not we can assist people who are suffering, then suddenly we come very, you know, cost-conscious. ~ Andrew Bacevich

The line in the sand that Carter drew along Iran's Zagros Mountains now stretches from Central Asia through the Middle East and across the width of Africa. That the ongoing enterprise may someday end - that U.S. troops will finally depart - appears so unlikely as to make the prospect unworthy of discussion. Like the war on drugs or the war on poverty, the War for the Greater Middle East has become a permanent fixture in American life and is accepted as such. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

Touring the United States in the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville, astute observer of the young Republic, noted the "feverish ardor" of its citizens to accumulate. Yet, even as the typical American "clutches at everything," the Frenchman wrote, "he holds nothing fast, but soon loosens his grasp to pursue fresh gratifications." However munificent his possessions, the American hungered for more, an obsession that filled him with "anxiety, fear, and regret, and keeps his mind in ceaseless trepidation."2 ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

As it turned out, Clark's shortcomings as a strategist - particularly failing to accurately take the measure of Milosevic - were as nothing in comparison to his deficiencies as a battlefield general. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

For the majority of contemporary Americans, the essence of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness centers on a relentless personal quest to acquire, consume, to indulge, and to shed whatever constraints might interfere with those endeavors. ~ Andrew Bacevich

As a turning point, the Bay of Pigs deserves comparison with 9/11 - a moment that created an opening to pose first-order questions, but elicited instead an ill-conceived, reflexive response. As would Johnson, Carter, and George W. Bush, Kennedy in 1961 squandered an opportunity to rethink and reorient U.S. policy, with fateful implications. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

Ideology makes people stupid. ~ Andrew Bacevich

as the Age of Bush gave way to the Era of Obama, little of substance changed. That was the greatest irony of all. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

To divine the course of world events, you'd do as well to probe the entrails of dead animals. Better still, ask your hairstylist. She will be at least as insightful and probably more entertaining a prophet than anyone you can read in Foreign Affairs or the op-ed page of the Washington Post. ~ Andrew Bacevich

Even as U.S. policy in recent decades has become progressively militarized, so too has the Vietnam-induced gap separating the U.S. military from American society persisted and perhaps even widened.47 ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

The resulting fractious, at times even dysfunctional, relationship between the top brass and civilian political leaders is one of Washington's dirty little secrets - recognized by all of the inside players, concealed from an electorate that might ask discomfiting questions about who is actually in charge. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

In an era that exalts individual autonomy above all other values, the state as a practical matter has long since forfeited its authority to command citizens to defend the nation. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month. ~ Andrew Bacevich

Americans entrust their security to a class of military professionals who see themselves in many respects as culturally and politically set apart from the rest of society.53 ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

Like the present-day GOP, the Northern Alliance was a loose coalition of unsavory opportunists, interested chiefly in acquiring power. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

As the writings of Walton and others suggest, many evangelicals view the requirements of U.S. national security in the here-and-now and the final accomplishment of Christ's saving mission at the end of time as closely related if not indistinguishable. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

If any overarching conclusion emerges from the Afghan and Iraq Wars (and from their Israeli equivalents), it's this: victory is a chimera. ~ Andrew Bacevich

Worldly ambition inhibits true learning. Ask me. I know. A young man in a hurry is nearly uneducable: He knows what he wants and where he's headed; when it comes to looking back or entertaining heretical thoughts, he has neither the time nor the inclination. All that counts is that he is going somewhere. Only as ambition wanes does education become a possibility. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

The war that the officer corps prepared itself to fight was the war in which the prospects of actually having to fight were most remote. This made perfect sense. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

In measured doses, mortification cleanses the soul. It's the perfect antidote for excessive self-regard. ~ Andrew J. Bacevich

As a kid I was enamored with fiction, most of it utterly forgettable and long forgotten. ~ Andrew Bacevich

It's not so much the amount of tax we pay - it's the sense that our pocket's being picked without our knowing what's going on. ~ Andrew Bacevich

America usually felt like iPhones and pizza and swimming pools to Andrew. L.A. was America. New sneakers. Sunshine. Pot and blue balls. Phoenix was America. Sprinklers and blow jobs and riding shotgun. Vegas was America, all of it. But if there were monsters and magic anywhere in this country, they would be here in New Orleans. New Orleans was an ancient doppelgänger city that grew in some other America that never really existed. ~ Jade Chang

You'll swoop from incredible highs when you're just glad to be alive, to those lows when you wish you were dead. And just when you start thinking that you've accepted who you are, that changes, too. Because who you are is not permanent ~ Andrew Davidson

Under Capitalism the most important thing is to squeeze out more and more money for a few people to spend. This means that most of the other people
as well as the earth and the sea and all the creatures and plants and goggas
have to pay the price. ~ Sally Andrew

I am not a political person, so I cannot comment on politics. ~ Andrew Tan

In [my] life ... I did not understand steam machinery, but I tried to understand that much more complicated piece of mechanism - man. ~ Andrew Carnegie

It's troubling for me as a Catholic to be at odds with the church. ~ Andrew Cuomo

My plant is probably dead."
Camryn looks slightly surprised. "You have a plant?"
I smile. "Yeah, her name's Georgia. ~ J.A. Redmerski

The purpose of risk management is to improve the future, not to explain the past. ~ Andrew Jaquith

The American attitude is 'We're the best'. That's why the NBA guys who come from other countries, the Europeans, all sort of stick together away from the game. ~ Andrew Bogut

I believe that any individual who has spiritually awakened in our time, to the degree that he or she finds a higher and deeper motive for living, is going to be driven to fight the good fight in one way or another ... And in order to fight the good fight, we have to engage, we have to get into the ring, not just stand outside it and be philosophers. ~ Andrew Cohen

I just want to try to ignore the scrutiny and all the distractions and just play hard basketball and let the best come ... Improving game by game and trying to improve my game is what I want to do. ~ Andrew Bogut

The greatest astonishment of my life was the discovery that the man who does the work is not the man who gets rich ~ Andrew Carnegie