“We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war.”

—  Barack Obama

Remarks Against Going to War with Iraq http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mheaney/Partisan_Dynamics_of_Contention.pdf (2 October 2002).
2000-03

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 30, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war." by Barack Obama?
Barack Obama photo
Barack Obama 1158
44th President of the United States of America 1961

Related quotes

Elie Wiesel photo

“If someone had told us in 1945 that in our lifetime religious wars would rage on virtually every continent, that thousands of children would once again be dying of starvation, we would not have believed it. Or that racism and fanaticism would flourish once again, we would not have believed it.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)

Al Gore photo

“First, America must have a strong defense. We must never forget that our national defense is about much more than the land within our borders. Just as we fought and conquered totalitarianism during World War Two — just as we fought and conquered communism during the Cold War — we are defending the idea of freedom itself.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Quotes, IPI speech (2000)

George W. Bush photo

“Our war on terror is well begun, but it is only begun. This campaign may not be finished on our watch — yet it must be and it will be waged on our watch.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)

Earl Warren photo

“We may not know the whole story in our lifetime.”

Earl Warren (1891–1974) United States federal judge

On the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, quoted in Minute by Minute (1985)
Undated

Donald J. Trump photo

“Our allies are not paying their fair share… The countries we are defending must pay for the cost of this defense, and if not, the U. S. must be prepared to let these countries defend themselves. We have no choice.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2016, April, Foreign Policy Speech (27 April 2016)

George W. Bush photo

“My budget includes the largest increase in defense spending in two decades — because while the price of freedom and security is high, it is never too high. Whatever it costs to defend our country, we will pay.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)

Clement Attlee photo

“As a nation we have two tasks; the one is to provide goods and services for our home needs, the other is to pay for the food and raw materials which we must get from abroad. Before the war we were rich; we owned money and railways and so forth abroad. The income from these helped to pay for our imports; but we sold these in order to help to win the war. We have therefore borrowed large sums from Canada and the United States to tide us over while we build up again, but when this money runs out we must pay for what we want from our own resources. To do this we must devote a far larger part than ever before of the wealth we produce to pay for imports.”

Clement Attlee (1883–1967) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Broadcast (18 March 1947), quoted in The Times (19 March 1947), p. 4
Prime Minister

George Steiner photo

“We are still waging Peloponnesian wars. Our control of the material world and our positive science have grown fantastically. But our very achievements turn against us, making politics more random and wars more bestial.”

George Steiner (1929–2020) American writer

Source: The Death of Tragedy (1961), Ch. I (p. 6).

John F. Kennedy photo

“Throughout our history we have been challenged to armed conflict by nations which sought to destroy our independence or threatened our freedom. The young men of America have risen to those occasions, giving themselves freely to the rigors and hardships of warfare. But the stamina and strength which the defense of liberty requires are not the product of a few weeks' basic training or a month's conditioning. These only come from bodies which have been conditioned by a lifetime of participation in sports and interest in physical activity. Our struggles against aggressors throughout our history have been won on the playgrounds and corner lots and fields of America. Thus, in a very real and immediate sense, our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1960, Sport at the New Frontier: The Soft American

“These symposia may have been, as much as anything, occasions to release the pent-up anxieties of a society always at war”

Thomas Cahill (1940) American scholar and writer

Source: Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (2003), Ch. III The Poet: How to Party
Context: These symposia may have been, as much as anything, occasions to release the pent-up anxieties of a society always at war—"the father of all, the king of all," "always existing by nature," as the Greek philosophers expressed it.

Related topics