Accomplish Quote by Walter Karp
![“There is nothing puzzling ... about America's gratuitously aggressive foreign policy or about the oligarchs' successful efforts to drag the Republic into five wars. What an aggressive foreign policy accomplishes by slow degrees, a state of war accomplishes in a trice. Overnight [war] kills reform…” quote by Walter Karp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/be9/walter-karp-49008_accomplish_there-is-nothing-puzzling-about-america_1827112.jpg)
“There is nothing puzzling ... about America's gratuitously aggressive foreign policy or about the oligarchs' successful efforts to drag the Republic into five wars. What an aggressive foreign policy accomplishes by slow degrees, a state of war accomplishes in a trice. Overnight [war] kills reform, overnight it transforms insurgents into traitors and the Republic into an imperiled realm. Overnight it strangles free politics, distracts and overawes the citizenry. Overnight it blasts public hope.”
About This Quote
Source Article: Political Commentary, 2023
He warns that aggressive foreign policy quickly leads to war, which erodes reform, turns dissenters into enemies, and undermines democratic stability.
In simple terms: Aggressive policy leads to war and loss of democracy.
Key Takeaway
Beware rapid escalation.
Themes
war
foreign policy
democracy
reform
politics
Mood
cautionary
reflective
urgent
Type
political
philosophical
When to use this quote
- government decisions
- international relations
- citizen activism
Key Concepts
authoritarianism
political decay
public trust
Questions to Reflect On
- What safeguards can prevent war?
- How does aggression erode public trust?
A Different Perspective
War can destroy democratic institutions faster than any reform.
![“What chiefly governs the [U.S.] military budget is the need to spend enormous sums of money in a useless way. The allegedly powerful Pentagon is simply a receptacle for wasteful expenditure, just as a city dump is the receptacle for the refuse of a city.” quote by Walter Karp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/8b1/walter-karp-49008_budgets_what-chiefly-governs-the-u-s-military-bu_878781.jpg)
![“[The public school system is] usually a twelve year sentence of mind control. Crushing creativity, smashing individualism, encouraging collectivism and compromise, destroying the exercise of intellectual inquiry, twisting it instead into meek subservience to authority.” quote by Walter Karp](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/138/walter-karp-49008_authority_the-public-school-system-is-usually-a-tw_1587731.jpg)
![“[The Community's] crosses and trials give me confidence. But I derive my hope above all, and most especially, from our utter incapacity, for it is always upon nothingness that God is pleased to rear His works. If at any day we accomplish some good here, the glory will certainly be His alone, since…” quote by Theodore Guerin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2b8/theodore-guerin-54729_accomplish_the-community-s-crosses-and-trials-give_7176.jpg)
