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For the majority of contemporary Americans, the essence of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness centers on a relentless personal quest to acquire, to consume, to indulge, and to shed whatever constraints might interfere with those endeavors.

— Andrew Bacevich The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism (2008)

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More quotes by Andrew Bacevich

In this way, the bravery of the warrior underwrites collective civic cowardice, while fostering a slack, insipid patriotism.

Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (2013)

We are squandering our wealth in many respects, to the extent that we persist in our imperial delusions, we're also going to squander our freedom.

In war-as-spectacle, appearances could be more important than reality, because appearance often ended up determining reality.

The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War (2005)

The way a nation wages war — the role allotted to the people in defending the country and the purposes for which it fights — testifies to the actual character of its political system.

Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (2013)

In its quest to control an unruly world, the Pentagon — acting in the name of the American people — slices and dices that world into smaller and smaller segments, while neglecting to assess the actual costs and benefits of the persistent meddling that it terms engagement.

Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (2013)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Andrew Bacevich (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.