Wednesday’s Maxim on Thursday

21 July 2005, 2101 EDT

This one reflects the ongoing debate over the Bush administration’s planning for the Iraq War, not to mention some Democratic complaints about its expense:

Those who try to be tightfisted while waging war always end by spending more. For nothing requires a more boundless effusion of money than war. The greater the provisions, the quicker the undertaking will be ended. Failure to make such provisions, just to save money, will make the enterprise take longer and, what is more, will result in incomparably greater cost. Accordingly, nothing is more pernicious than waging a war by disbursing monies desultorily and without large amounts of cash at hand. For that is not the way to finish a war but to nourish it (Series C, 149)

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