We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.Barack Obama
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As a nation, we need to do everything we can to make sure those who have served have the tools they need to succeed in civilian life.Tammy Duckworth
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It's important to remember that finding a job is only the beginning of a smooth transition to civilian life for our troops - as employers, we must also ensure their ongoing success.John T. Chambers
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I think a lot of people, including me, clammed up when a civilian asked about battle, about war. It was fashionable. One of the most impressive ways to tell your war story is to refuse to tell it, you know. Civilians would then have to imagine all kinds of deeds of derring-do.Kurt Vonnegut
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The Secretary of Defense is not a super General or Admiral. His task is to exercise civilian control over the Department for the Commander-in-Chief and the country.Donald Rumsfeld
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The last thing we want to do is to go into an area and inflict unnecessary civilian casualties. One is too many.Bob Ainsworth
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When I was about eighteen, I saw myself as a rather sensitive, delicate, poetic, romantic figure. And then I got into the Civilian Conservation Corps and into the army, and I started smoking and drinking and being tough and getting muscles, and I had a whole different image of myself.Walter Matthau
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We're so used to using military terminology in civilian speech that we forget those terms might mean something very specific.Phil Klay
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To be awarded with an honour of the stature of a Padma Bhushan, which is deemed as one of the three highest civilian awards in our country, is just gratifying.Sharmila Tagore
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Gaddafi tried to give a masterclass to men like the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, on how to crush a civilian uprising.Hisham Matar
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We receive reports now on a daily basis from our own people on the ground in Darfur on widespread atrocities and grave violations of human rights against the civilian population.Jan Egeland
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After World War II, defending America in the modern world required new intelligence agencies, the unification of the armed services under a massive new Defense Department, and later the creation of new civilian organizations with some defense functions, such as NASA and the Energy Department.Robert C. O'Brien
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As long as Hamas retains control over civilian life in Gaza, it may rebuild and strengthen, thus requiring the IDF to return and fight in areas where it has already operated.Yoav Gallant
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This is going to sound terrible, but once I moved to New York, I never did a civilian job. I was extraordinarily lucky.Jean Smart
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I just felt from personal observation that there is nothing more dislocated or alienated than a lifelong military person trying to cope in civilian life. It's like two completely separate planets.Lee Child
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Much as soldiers come back, they've been in combat or the edge of it and suddenly that adjustment back to civilian life is a real challenge.Mark Dayton
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We are at war, and it's ongoing, and there's no end in sight. More and more guys are coming back from it, and the transition back to civilian life is almost too big a mountain to climb.Joe Walsh
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The First Battle of Fallujah was called off in part because of the intensity of non-U.S. media coverage of civilian casualties from outlets like Al Jazeera.Phil Klay
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American soldiers wore khaki uniforms during World War II. Men's khaki trousers became fashionable after the war, as homecoming GI's decided to continue wearing the soft, comfortable pants in their civilian capacities.Roger Stone
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Qatar-based 'Al-Jazeera,' the most important news channel in the Arab world, was harshly criticized by high U.S. officials for having 'emphasized civilian casualties' during the destruction of Falluja. The problem of independent media was later resolved when the channel was kicked out of Iraq in preparation for free elections.Noam Chomsky
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I've used guns in combat. On more than one occasion, guns have saved my life. But there's a big difference between a U.S. Marine with a rifle and a civilian with a gun.Seth Moulton
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By requiring all 30 million Americans age 18 to 25 to perform two years of national service, in the military or civilian life, we will be asking for a shared sacrifice from all American citizens.Charles B. Rangel
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I like life on the road. It's a lot easier than civilian life. You kind of feel like you're in a motorcycle gang.Leonard Cohen
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If I'm able to communicate one thing to adults, it would be this: it should not be easier to purchase a gun than it is to obtain a driver's license, and military-grade weapons should not be accessible in civilian settings.Emma Gonzalez
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My parents met at Fort Riley, Kan., during World War II. My father was an Army civilian; he had been trampled by a horse in his youth and couldn't enlist. My mother was studying to be a nurse and, when war broke out, joined the Women's Army Corps without even telling her parents.Marillyn Hewson
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To be sure, the United States will be eternally proud of our civilian leaders and the men and women of our armed forces who served in World War II for their sacrifice at a time of maximum peril to our country and our world.Ben Rhodes
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Had I been injured on the freeway and not in combat, it is likely that I would be bankrupt even though I had medical insurance through my civilian employer.Tammy Duckworth
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For those who have served in combat, life is never the same. It puts the most stressful civilian situations into a whole different context.Todd Wilcox
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The only moral question with suicide bombing is who the target is. And in that sense, the suicide bomber is no different from the stealth bomber or the cruise missile. If it is targeted at civilian people, then it is morally wrong, whether done by Bush, Blair, or a suicide bomber.George Galloway
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After the horrific human rights violations committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, the Netanyahu administration had just cause catalyzing a de jure right to pursue justice as it did by declaring war on Hamas, not hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian Palestinian men, women, and especially children.Al N. Green
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After I was discharged from the military, it was difficult trying to become a civilian.Chris Kyle
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I've read a lot of war writing, even World War I writing, the British war poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves's memoir 'Goodbye to All That,' and a civilian memoir, 'Testament of Youth,' by Vera Brittain.George Packer
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During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Latin America moved decisively away from military rule and toward civilian democracy.Stephen Kinzer
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Mike Hall was my old friend and, more important, the finest soldier I'd ever known. After over 30 years of service and then 18 months at a good civilian job, a phone call had brought the retired command sergeant major back on active duty to become the senior enlisted adviser of all international forces in Afghanistan.Stanley A. McChrystal
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Who do you call a civilian in a guerilla war? I mean, it might be a farmer by day or a merchant, a housewife, and by night the housewife may be helping to make landmines and booby traps and who knows.Tim O'Brien
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As a 22-year Army Veteran who served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, and as a Civilian Advisor to the Afghan Army in Operation Enduring Freedom, I understand both the gravity of giving the order, and the challenge of carrying it out.Allen West
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People understand that nuclear weapons cannot be used without indiscriminate effects on civilian populations. Such weapons have no legitimate place in our world. Their elimination is both morally right and a practical necessity in protecting humanity.Ban Ki-moon
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As a civilian during the Second War, I was exposed to danger in circumstances which removed any distinction between the man in and the man out of uniform.Lester B. Pearson
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The American system of civilian control of the military recognizes that soldiers' attention must be fixed on winning battles and staying alive, and that the fog of war can sometimes obscure the rule of law.Andrew Rosenthal
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The destruction of civilian hamlets, the killing and the wounding of civilians, became vastly greater than it had been before, and it was very upsetting; but I still couldn't bring myself to understand that the policy itself was wrong.Neil Sheehan
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This was the period when I used all the influence I had to get the British to abandon their export trade, and as much as possible convert all of their manufacturing facilities to the immediate needs of the war, including civilian, as well as military requirements.W. Averell Harriman
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When I was at the CIA I asked my civilian advisory board to tackle some tough questions. Among the toughest: In a political culture that every day demands more transparency and more public accountability from every aspect of national life, could American intelligence continue to survive and succeed? That jury is still out.Michael Hayden
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Maybe the answer to Selective Service is to start everyone off in the army and draft them for civilian life as needed.Bill Vaughan
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By 1939, the Depression was back. Unemployment was huge. Roosevelt didn't have any quick fix. Remember, the New Deal, Works Progress Administration, and Civilian Conservation Corps - all that happened years before. Roosevelt was riding a storm.Gore Vidal
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By the 1980s, practically no one under 60 in the real civilian world wore hats for anything except weddings, funerals or Ascot. Hats had been in competition with hair, and hair had won. Thirty years before that, Brits of all classes and ages wore hats all the time.Peter York
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Respecting our veterans includes providing them the ways and means they so desperately need to reintegrate into our lives and serve us again as productive members of our civilian community.Charles B. Rangel
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In the short run, using militias might be the quickest and easiest way to improve order on Iraq's streets and uproot the terrorists and guerrillas who routinely attack American troops and civilian targets.Alex Berenson
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It was a civilian ship, and the Lusitania could outrun any submarine. So this population of people was very confident that Cunard and the Royal Navy would be looking after them. Why weren't they under convoy? That's the real question.Erik Larson
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Al Qaeda operates by launching surprise attacks on civilian targets with the goal of massive casualties. Our only means for preventing future attacks, which could use WMDs, is by acquiring information that allows for pre-emptive action.John Yoo
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I intend to surround myself with and empower experienced, capable civilian leaders who will enable healthy civil-military relations, grounded in meaningful oversight.Lloyd Austin
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I'm saying this as a Republican: In the White House, the effort that goes in and wherever these decisions are made, as to limit civilian casualties, is more probably than any in the history of the world, especially when you consider the history of warfare.Peter T. King
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