[jeffersondem]

“A state can do whatever it pleases. That does not free it from the consequence of poor choices.”

Bismark had views similar to yours but said it with more flourish: The most indifferent arguments are good when one has a majority of bayonets.

Later shortened to just “might makes right.”

[rockrr]

That was exactly what the con-feds believed - well, that and “strike first and leave a bloody corpse”.

Unfortunately they couldn’t cash the check their mouths had written.

[BroJoeK]

jeffersondem: "Bismark had views similar to yours but said it with more flourish:
The most indifferent arguments are good when one has a majority of bayonets.
Later shortened to just 'might makes right.'

Not quite:

"The first known use of might makes right in the English language was in 1846 by the American pacifist and abolitionist Adin Ballou (1803–1890), who wrote, 'But now, instead of discussion and argument, brute force rises up to the rescue of discomfited error, and crushes truth and right into the dust.
'Might makes right,' and hoary folly totters on in her mad career escorted by armies and navies.' "

So, it was abolitionists complaining about the Slave Power who first used "might makes right" in English.

Yes, Bismarck did issue many pithy quotes, but "might makes right" is not among them.