Washington Rules Quotes

“I began to appreciate that authentic truth is never simple and that any version of truth handed down from on high-whether by presidents, prime ministers, or archbishops-is inherently suspect.”
― Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

“The folly and hubris of the policy makers who heedlessly thrust the nation into an ill-defined and open-ended 'global war on terror' without the foggiest notion of what victory would look like, how it would be won, and what it might cost approached standards hitherto achieved only by slightly mad German warlords.”
― Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

“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, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

“In measured doses, mortification cleanses the soul. It's the perfect antidote for excessive self-regard.”
― Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

“Call it habit or conditioning or socialization: The citizens of the United States have essentially forfeited any capacity to ask first-order questions about the fundamentals of national security policy.”
― Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

“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, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

“careful deliberation. Parties on all sides agreed that whichever way the president came down, the implications were sure to be momentous. In fact, however, even as Obama pondered the question of whether to send ten thousand or twenty thousand or thirty thousand or forty thousand additional reinforcements to Afghanistan, the actual ability to exercise choice had already passed from his hands. In essence, the president found himself in the position of a man shopping”
― Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

“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, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War

“Americans today must reckon with a contradiction of gaping proportions. Promising prosperity and peace, the Washington rules are propelling the United States toward insolvency and perpetual war.(Washington rules, p. 250)”
― Andrew J. Bacevich, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War