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War Quotes
"Those are just some of the people whom we interviewed in the documentary, but that should provide you with a good sense of the credibility of the individuals who bolster the case that this administration lied us into a war."
16
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."
16
"The human society has evolved war as a cultural institution, like the science of astronomy, or mathematics. War is a part of our lives, a career, a respected vocation. Bright, alert young men and women move into it, putting their shoulders to the wheel as they did in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. It has always been so."
16
"Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace."
16
"Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq's future is not."
16
"In most communities it is illegal to cry "fire" in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?"
16
"It is useful to remember that no matter where we turn, there is rarely any shortage of elevated ideals to accompany the resort to violence."
16
"If we are lucky, and George W. Bush is right, we are about to witness the War of the Happy Iraqis."
16
"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it."
16
"The notion of a neutral, mainstream national media gained dominance only in World War II and in its aftermath, when what turned out to be a temporary moderate consensus came to govern the country."
16
"We were the lucky ones, the notthese, we were the ones who had survived the aerial bombing and fire-clusters, the final flash. Regrettable, unavoidable, a war to end all wars, a war for democracy, a war for freedom, peaceful war. Sometimes war is necessary. Sometimes war is right. But to the broken and the dead, to the wounded and the maimed, to the exploded and the shrapnelshattered, to minds gone dark, to eyes that have seen agony no tears can wash away, it hardly matters that the dead language of war repeats itself through time. The bodies that can say nothing have the last word. What is it - the last word? No.No more war."
16
"We say that we care about the war, but we don't even really know what we're fighting for."
16
"In times of peace, the war party insists on making preparation for war. As soon as prepared for, it insists on making war."
16
"There's no such thing as a crowded battlefield. Battlefields are lonely places."
16
"War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder."
15
"He might have perfect form and better swordsmanship, but I had one thing on my side that stacked the deck in my favor. I was absolutely crazy."
15
"Every nation has its war party... It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. It tolerates no opposition."
15
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?"
15
"She died in my arms saying, "I don't want to die. That is what death is like. It doesn't matter what uniforms the soldiers are wearing. It doesn't matter how good the weapons are. I thought if everyone could see what I saw, we could never have war anymore."
15
"So far war has been the only force that can discipline a whole community and until an equivalent discipline is organized I believe that war must have its way."
15
"War. Or, rather, wars. Not one, not two, but many wars, both big and small, just and unjust, wars with shifting casts of supposed heroes and villains, each new hero making one increasingly nostalgic for the old villain. The names changed, as did the faces, and I spit on them equally for all the petty feuds, the snipers, the land mines, bombing raids, the rockets, the looting and raping and killing."
15
"Man's fate in battle is worked out before the war begins."
15
"The world is as it used to be:
'All nations striving strong to make
Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters
They do no more for Christ’s sake
Than you who are helpless in such matters.'
That this is not the judgment-hour
For some of them’s a blessed thing,
For if it were they'd have to scour
Hell’s floor for so much threatening....
'Ha, ha. It will be warmer when
I blow the trumpet (if indeed
I ever do; for you are men,
And rest eternal sorely need).'"
15
"In the Second World War he took no public part, having escaped to a neutral country just before its outbreak. In private conversation he was wont to say that homicidal lunatics were well employed in killing each other, but that sensible men would keep out of their way while they were doing it. Fortunately this outlook, which is reminiscent of Bentham, has become rare in this age, which recognizes that heroism has a value independent of its utility. The Last Survivor of a Dead Epoch."
15
"How do we keep convincing young people to die in fights they didn't start for reasons we're too devious to tell the truth about? It's way too easy for governments to spend other people's blood. Maybe only the sons and daughters of those who declare the wars should be allowed to fight and die."
15
"When war is declared, truth is the first casualty."
15
"In the event of a victory over Germany by Soviet Russia and England, Bolshevism in Europe would inevitably follow. Under these circumstances I would prefer to see Germany win the war."
15
"Look now -- in all of history men have been taught that killing of men is an evil thing not to be countenanced. Any man who kills must be destroyed because this is a great sin, maybe the worst we know. And then we take a soldier and put murder in his hands and we say to him, "use it well, use it wisely." We put no checks on him. Go out and kill as many of a certain kind or classification of your brothers as you can. And we will reward you for it because it is a violation of your early training."
14
"There is no victory without a war, no prize without a price, no crown without a cross."
14
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