John McCain Quotes on War & Peace (19 Quotes)

authorize the president to use what force necessary in order to bring this war, or this conflict, to an early conclusion.

Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war.

It's the United States' war. We're the ones that started it. It's our responsibility to finish it, ... We need more troops. We need more money. We need it quickly, and time is not on our side.

War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.

They're unhappy about a number of aspects of the war, and with some justification, ... Some serious mistakes were made.

But we have a war of ideals and ideas, and that is to sell democracy and freedom and tolerance to the world and the stories like these set us back,

I would never want to see myself viewed as beating the drums of war, ... but I would rather live with that image than look into the mirror and see a member of Congress who failed to do his duty.

things go wrong in war. Mistakes happen.

The unwarranted, unprovoked attacks on innocent Americans is clearly an act of war and one that requires that kind of response.

Subjecting prisoners to abuse leads to bad intelligence because under torture a detainee will tell his interrogator anything to make the pain stop, ... Second, mistreatment of our prisoners endangers U. S. troops who might be captured by the enemy. ... And third, prisoner abuses exact on us a terrible toll in the war of ideas because inevitably these abuses become public.

Our armed forces will fight for peace in Iraq, a peace built on more secure foundations than are found today in the Middle East. Even more important, they will fight for two human conditions of even greater value than peace: liberty and justice.

Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war,

War is awful. Nothing, not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. War is wretched beyond description and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality. Whatever is won in war, it is loss the veteran remembers.

Opponents of the war will seize this moment to attack our policy in Iraq, ... They're already doing that. We know that. It will not affect my view, except for the sorrow and regret that I feel at the loss of American lives.

We all need to take a moment and not rush to judgment on this matter without knowing all the facts. The president's leadership has earned our trust in the war on terror, and surely his administration deserves the presumption that they would not sell our security short.

We've got two wars going on one a military one in Iraq, and then we've got a war for public opinion, for the hearts and minds of all the people in the world, ... We've got to make sure that we don't torture people.

The abuse of prisoners hurts America's cause in the war on terror, endangers U. S. service members who might be captured by the enemy, and is anathema to the values Americans have held dear for generations,

You cannot tell the enemy you're going to leave and expect the enemy to not - and expect to succeed. I mean, that's just a fundamental of warfare.

I'm as frustrated with the French, I think, as anyone, but look, there's going to be other challenges and there are going to be other issues. As long as there's a war on terrorism going on, we're all going to have to work together.