A Quote by John Bolton

Politicians, like generals, have a tendency to fight the last war.

John Bolton

Quote Topics

Fight Generals Last Like Politicians Tendency War

Quote Author

John Bolton
American - Statesman
Born: November 20, 1948

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.

Adam Hochschild

Lieutenants lied to captains, captains lied to colonels, colonels lied to generals, generals lied to politicians, politicians lied to the people. Right on up and down the line. It was like a complete and total, not a total lie, but just like so much, it was like PR, in other words it was like okay, we've got to sell the war to the American people.

Peter P. Mahoney

All of the promises of politicians, generals, madmen, and crusaders that war can create peace have yet to be borne out.

Barbara Kingsolver

If the thumbnail version of the Iraq war was that Bush lied about WMD, the thumbnail version of Obama's war in Afghanistan is that the generals pushed him into a war he didn't want to fight.

Michael Hastings

Not only generals can be politicians, and not only generals can be defense ministers.

Ayelet Shaked

The Germans may take Paris, but that will not prevent me from going on with the war. We will fight on the Loire, we will fight on the Garronne, we will fight even in the Pyrenees. And if at last we are driven off the Pyrenees, we will continue the war at sea.

Georges Clemenceau

I've never heard of soft war.There's no soft war. War is war. Any war is ruthless. When you fight terrorists, you fight them like any other war.

Bashar al-Assad

You're beginning to hear the tale of the common man and woman rather than the traditional memoir about the generals who just finished the war or the politicians who just rendered glorious service to the country.

Frank McCourt

Here's the latest from the Pentagon -- the generals are worried that the White House is spreading itself thin by trying to fight a war on two fronts; Afghanistan and Fox News.

Jay Leno

Corporate planning cycles are a classic example of generals fighting the last war over again instead of preparing for what might lie ahead.

Jay Samit

When Lincoln ran into trouble during the Civil War, he got new generals. He brought in Grant. I hope that President Obama will bring in some new generals on the financial front.

Marcy Kaptur

Musicians are like politicians. They're the last people who should be making music, just like politicians are the last people who should be running things.

Nigel Godrich

The politicians, who once stated that war was too complex to be left to the generals, now act as though peace were too complex to be left to themselves.