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Top 20 Michael Hastings Quotes (2025 Update)

Michael Hastings Quote: “The simple and terrifying reality, forbidden from discussion in America, was that despite spending $600 billion a year on the military, despite having the best fighting force the world had ever known, they were getting their asses kicked by illiterate peasants who made bombs out of manure and wood.”

1. “The simple and terrifying reality, forbidden from discussion in America, was that despite spending $600 billion a year on the military, despite having the best fighting force the world had ever known, they were getting their asses kicked by illiterate peasants who made bombs out of manure and wood.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “The idea of aerial military surveillance dates back to the Civil War, when both the Union and the Confederacy used hot-air balloons to spy on the other side, tracking troop movements and helping to direct artillery fire.”

2. “The idea of aerial military surveillance dates back to the Civil War, when both the Union and the Confederacy used hot-air balloons to spy on the other side, tracking troop movements and helping to direct artillery fire.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “General McChrystal wanted to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.”

3. “General McChrystal wanted to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “Whether or not Afghanistan would be a peaceful nation-state had we not gone into Iraq I doubt. Afghanistan is going to be Afghanistan, no matter how hard we try to make it something else.”

4. “Whether or not Afghanistan would be a peaceful nation-state had we not gone into Iraq I doubt. Afghanistan is going to be Afghanistan, no matter how hard we try to make it something else.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “I have a deep-seated skepticism about the morality of violence. Violence is almost always morally corrosive.”

5. “I have a deep-seated skepticism about the morality of violence. Violence is almost always morally corrosive.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “The humanitarian argument is so selective I find it difficult to swallow. It’s not even so much about the choice as to where we should get involved and where we shouldn’t.”

6. “The humanitarian argument is so selective I find it difficult to swallow. It’s not even so much about the choice as to where we should get involved and where we shouldn’t.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “Clearly the American military has been a force for good for the United States. There’s a reason we have a standing military. But there’s something to be said for having a much smaller military because then we wouldn’t be tempted to get involved in things we shouldn’t be getting involved in.”

7. “Clearly the American military has been a force for good for the United States. There’s a reason we have a standing military. But there’s something to be said for having a much smaller military because then we wouldn’t be tempted to get involved in things we shouldn’t be getting involved in.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “By the second sentence of a pitch, the entirety of the story should be explained.”

8. “By the second sentence of a pitch, the entirety of the story should be explained.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “If the thumbnail version of the Iraq war was that Bush lied about WMD, the thumbnail version of Obama’s war in Afghanistan is that the generals pushed him into a war he didn’t want to fight.”

9. “If the thumbnail version of the Iraq war was that Bush lied about WMD, the thumbnail version of Obama’s war in Afghanistan is that the generals pushed him into a war he didn’t want to fight.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “I’m glad you’re the one I get to leave the parties with.”

10. “I’m glad you’re the one I get to leave the parties with.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “I’m talking to people all of the time. So it hasn’t really had a big impact. Access is never my main concern anyway. If you keep digging and making phone calls you can get stories and not have to rely on the good graces of the Pentagon spokesperson. I am not in his good graces.”

11. “I’m talking to people all of the time. So it hasn’t really had a big impact. Access is never my main concern anyway. If you keep digging and making phone calls you can get stories and not have to rely on the good graces of the Pentagon spokesperson. I am not in his good graces.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “Inside the White House there were always extreme amounts of doubt about whether they should be escalating in Afghanistan. In fact, most of the president’s advisers said, “This is probably not going to work.” A lot of people in the military said, “This is probably not going to work.””

12. “Inside the White House there were always extreme amounts of doubt about whether they should be escalating in Afghanistan. In fact, most of the president’s advisers said, “This is probably not going to work.” A lot of people in the military said, “This is probably not going to work.””

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “I thought Gen. McChrystal was unfireable, that his position was secure.”

13. “I thought Gen. McChrystal was unfireable, that his position was secure.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “The guys on the ground are the guys I care about. I’ve had the most satisfaction telling their stories. But when you’re in combat with somebody, yes, a bond does grow.”

14. “The guys on the ground are the guys I care about. I’ve had the most satisfaction telling their stories. But when you’re in combat with somebody, yes, a bond does grow.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the military conducted only a handful of drone missions.”

15. “During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the military conducted only a handful of drone missions.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “When writing for a mass audience, put a fact in every sentence.”

16. “When writing for a mass audience, put a fact in every sentence.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “I grew up reading Holocaust literature at the beach, Gulag literature on winter holidays, Vietnam memoirs on spring break.”

17. “I grew up reading Holocaust literature at the beach, Gulag literature on winter holidays, Vietnam memoirs on spring break.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “The way the Pentagon and its defenders have pushed back against this story is to say: “They weren’t doing psychological operations, they were doing information operations and public affairs. They were just helping us spin senators like we normally do.””

18. “The way the Pentagon and its defenders have pushed back against this story is to say: “They weren’t doing psychological operations, they were doing information operations and public affairs. They were just helping us spin senators like we normally do.””

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “The fact is, psychiatric help is not widely available to CIA agents – and as in the military, there is a stigma attached to admitting post-traumatic stress.”

19. “The fact is, psychiatric help is not widely available to CIA agents – and as in the military, there is a stigma attached to admitting post-traumatic stress.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “I want to be the greatest investigative reporter of my generation.”

20. “I want to be the greatest investigative reporter of my generation.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “Afghanistan would have been difficult enough without Iraq. Iraq made it impossible. The argument that had we just focused on Afghanistan we’d now be okay is persuasive, but it omits the fact that we weren’t supposed to get involved in nation-building in Afghanistan.”

21. “Afghanistan would have been difficult enough without Iraq. Iraq made it impossible. The argument that had we just focused on Afghanistan we’d now be okay is persuasive, but it omits the fact that we weren’t supposed to get involved in nation-building in Afghanistan.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “And there’s this talk that we’re asking soldiers to make the greatest sacrifice, but the reality is that civilians bear the burden of war more than the combatants. You’re much more likely to get accidentally blown up or killed by a death squad than you are to die in a firefight.”

22. “And there’s this talk that we’re asking soldiers to make the greatest sacrifice, but the reality is that civilians bear the burden of war more than the combatants. You’re much more likely to get accidentally blown up or killed by a death squad than you are to die in a firefight.”

— Michael Hastings

Michael Hastings Quote: “I think when war becomes your life, I think its very difficult to have the proper perspective to be able to create a fully balanced policy.”

23. “I think when war becomes your life, I think its very difficult to have the proper perspective to be able to create a fully balanced policy.”

— Michael Hastings

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