Military Defence Quotes & Sayings

And the PRCS [Palestinian Red Crescent Society] had not lost just one hospital: thirteen clinics and nine hospitals all over Lebanon had been destroyed in this way. Only Gaza Hospital, for a reason I was to discover three years later, was still standing. At the height of the air raids, when the Palestinians found out that every single PRCS hospital and clinic was a bomb target, they put three Israeli soldiers captured in south Lebanon on the upper floors of Gaza Hospital, and radioed a message to the Israeli Army saying that any further military action on Gaza Hospital would result in Israeli lives being lost. That saved Gaza Hospital from further destruction. — Ang Swee Chai

I have always considered Saipan the decisive battle of the Pacific offensive ... (it was) the naval and military heart and brain of the Japanese defence strategy. — Holland Smith

We used to have a War Office, but now we have a Ministry of Defence, nuclear bombs are now described as deterrents, innocent civilians killed in war are now described as collateral damage and military incompetence leading to US bombers killing British soldiers is cosily described as friendly fire. Those who are in favour of peace are described as mavericks and troublemakers, whereas the real militants are those who want the war. — Tony Benn

Well, you have a defence attache here, that's a step forward. Your Defence Minister has been here, our defence people have exchanges with you. So friendly relations at the military level are already in existence. — Sellapan Ramanathan

I'm a military man, I did what I did only because my country had to be saved from tribalism and feudalism. If I failed, it was only because I was betrayed. The so-called genocide was nothing more than just a war in defence of the revolution and a system from which all have benefited. — Mengistu Haile Mariam

We will work with industrial or Dept. Of Defence sponsorship as long as we keep our principals of openness firm we're proud to work with the military, and they respect that in turn. — Charles Vest

I have always had a keen interest in defence and military history and read more on this subject than anything else. — Bob Ainsworth

A ten per cent reduction in military expenditures per year would be reasonable, coupled with a programme of retraining the workforce and redirecting the resources in a manner that creates employment and advances social welfare. I also encourage all States to contribute to the UN's annual Report on Military Expenditures by submitting complete data on national defence budgets. — Alfred-Maurice De Zayas

I had the evidence that a crash did happen here ... Give this information to the young people of the world and this country ... They want it. Give it to them. Don't hide it and tell lies and make stories. They're not stupid ... It's their information. It doesn't belong to the Army or the Department of Defence. If it's classified, take the classification off and give it to them! — Philip J. Corso

European countries need to make more of a contribution in terms of defence capabilities. It is not fair?to keep turning to our ally in the United States to contribute military forces to problems which involve our own security. — Geoff Hoon

It is the duty of our men to enroll themselves in the national services. We need all our manpower for defence. For the military and ... we need a quarter of a million men. — Eamon De Valera

Raw in the fields the rude militia swarms, Mouth without hands; maintained at vast expense, In peace a charge, in war a weak defence. — John Dryden

Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence. — Thomas Paine

It is a matter worthy of observation, that the more a country is peopled, the smaller their armies are. In military numbers, the ancients far exceeded the moderns: and the reason is evident, for trade being the consequence of population, men become too much absorbed thereby to attend to any thing else. Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence. And history sufficiently informs us, that the bravest achievements were always accomplished in the non age of a nation. — Thomas Paine

The second tunnel's a Ministry of Defence tunnel ... dug for a nuclear bomb shelter. The entrance is in the garden center at Woolworth's in Great Malvern ... When the four-minute warning goes off, the Ministry of Defence lot at the RSRE'll be ferried up to Woolies by the military police. Councillors from Malvern Council'll be allowed in, so will Woolworth's manager and assistant manager. Then the military police ... They'll grab one or two of the prettier shop assistants for breeding ... Then that door'll close and all of us'll get blown to kingdom come. — David Mitchell

If the Commander-in-Chief will look beyond the defence forces, he will discover that the real India is not military but peace-loving. — Mahatma Gandhi

Defending democracy also sounds fine; but to defend democracy by military means, one must be militarily efficient and one cannot become militarily efficient without centralizing power, setting up a tyranny, imposing some form of conscription or slavery to the state. In other words, the miltary defence of democracy in contemporary circumstances entails the abolition of democracy even before war starts. — Aldous Huxley