War

"When I go home, people ask me: "Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? Why? You some kinda war junkie?", I won't say a god damn word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand it's about the men next to you. And that's it. That's all it is."

"A story. A man fires a rifle for many years. and he goes to war. And afterwards he comes home, and he sees that whatever else he may do with his life - build a house, love a woman, change his son's diaper - he will always remain a jarhead. And all the jarheads killing and dying, they will always be me. We are still in the desert."

"Property, the whole thing's about property."

"Wars don't ennoble men, it turns them into dogs, poisons the soul."

"There's a beast in every man. And it awakens when you put a sword in his hand."

"Luke: I'm looking for a great warrior. Yoda: Great warrior. [Laughs] Wars not make one great."

"Spock: Captain, you took a big chance."

"What this war represents is a failure to listen. Now you're closer to the Chancellor than anyone, please, ask him to stop the fighting and let the diplomacy resume."

"War makes thieves of many honest folk."

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers: for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."

"Make a hawk a dove, Stop a war with love, Make a liar tell the truth."

"James McHenry: War is inevitable, sir."

"There are always casualties in war, gentlemen — otherwise it wouldn't be war. It'd just be a rather nasty argument with lots of pushing-and-shoving."

"It took me nearly a whole day to drive from Tokmak to the village of sonovka. I kept passing large Russian settlements on the road ... then Kirghiz villages completely ruined and razed literally to the ground - villages where, but three short years previously, there had been busy bazaars and farms surrounded with gardens and fields of luzerne. Now on every side a desert. It seemed incredible that it was possible in so short a time to wipe whole villages off the face of the earth, with their well-developed system of farming. It was only with the most attentive search that i could find the short stumps of their trees and remains of their irrigation canals. The destruction of the aryks or irrigation canals in this district quickly reduced a highly developed farming district into a desert and blotted out all traces of cultivation and settlement. Only in the water meadows and low-lying ground near the stream is any cultivation possible."

"Months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror."

"One evening, in a high-society salon, people are discussing the war. A veteran recounts in moving terms the death of one of his friends. A lady weeps; she thinks of her husband who fell in the field of honor. "War is a terrible thing, unjustifiable," she sighs. Then, a well-known diplomat from the Quai d'Orsay, who until then had not taken part in the conversation, says with tranquil arrogance: "War? It's not that terrible! The death of one man is, indeed, a terrible thing, but one hundred thousand deaths is a statistic""

"Anyone who clings to the historically untrue — and thoroughly immoral — doctrine that 'violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence settled their fates quite nicely. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."

"As regards Providence, he cannot shake off the prejudice that in war, God is on the side of the big battalions, which at present are in the enemy's camp."

"War is murder, king-sized."

"Look, there is one statement that bothers me more than anything else, and that's the idea that when the troops are in combat everybody has to shut up. Imagine if we put troops in combat with a faulty rifle, and that rifle was malfunctioning and troops were dying as a result. I can't think anyone would allow that to happen, that would not speak up. Well, what's the difference between a faulty plan and strategy that's getting just as many troops killed?"

"But Thy most dreaded instrument In working out a pure intent, Is man,—arrayed for mutual slaughter,— Yea, Carnage is Thy daughter."

"They came with banner, spear, and shield; And it was proved in Bosworth field, Not long the Avenger was withstood— Earth help'd him with the cry of blood."

"Everyone loses in war, even the winners."

"War is much too serious a matter to be entrusted to the military."

"Captain Kirk: Death, destruction, disease, horror. That's what war is all about, Anan. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided. You've made it neat and painless. So neat and painless, you've had no reason to stop it."

"Bugs Bunny: Of course you realize, this means war!"

"It's a long way to Tipperary, it's a long way to go; It's a long way to Tipperary, to the sweetest girl I know! Good-bye to Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square; It's a long way to Tipperary, but my Heart's right there!"

"Every bullet has its billet."

"War is only a sort of dramatic representation, a sort of dramatic symbol of a thousand forms of duty. I fancy that it is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you."

"Germany's greatness makes it impossible for her to do without the ocean, but the ocean also proves that even in the distance, and on its farther side, without Germany and the German Emperor, no great decision dare henceforth be taken."

"I will die in the last ditch. (Dyke)."

"Our German Fatherland to which I hope will be granted … to become in the future as closely united, as powerful, and as authoritative as once the Roman world-empire was, and that, just as in the old times they said, "Civis romanus sum," hereafter, at some time in the future, they will say, "I am a German citizen.""

"You have laid upon me this double obligation: "we are relying upon you, Mr. President, to keep us out of war, but we are relying upon you, Mr. President, to keep the honor of the nation unstained.""

"Now we remember over here in Flanders, (It isn't strange to think of You in Flanders!) This hideous warfare seems to make things clear. We never thought about You much in England, But now that we are far away from England We have no doubts, we know that You are here."

"War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! There's got to be a better way What is it good for? War has caused unrest Among the younger generation Induction then destruction Who wants to die? ... War-I despise Because it means destruction Of innocent lives War means tears To thousands of mothers how When their sons go off to fight And lose their lives ... It's an enemy of all mankind No point of war Because you're a man ... War has shattered Many young men's dreams We've got no place for it today They say we must fight to keep our freedom But Lord, there's just got to be a better way It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker Friend only to the undertaker"

"We seemed to see our flag unfurled, Our champion waiting in his place For the last battle of the world, The Armageddon of the race."

"Urban warfare remains characterized by slow, massive destruction. Yet 50 years ago, there were no computers, no internet, no GPS, no UAVs, no digital communications, no night-vision devices, and no precision strikes. Two facts account for the lack of change in tactics. First, cities are constructed of steel and concrete, with streets providing the open spaces, which are usually linear. Any fighter in the open is quickly cut down. No technology can accurately detect and count humans inside buildings and tunnels. So the attacker must advance by blasting through the sides of buildings and slowly, slowly search every room. Second, tens to hundreds of thousands of civilians can be trapped in the cities. The terrorists in Mosul have prevented the civilians from leaving in order to use them as shields."

"If we don’t end war, war will end us."

"This new Katterfelto, his show to complete, Means his boats should all sink as they pass by our fleet; Then as under the ocean their course they steer right on, They can pepper their foes from the bed of old Triton."

"As long as war is regarded as wicked it will always have its fascinations. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular."

"It is not an army that we must train for war; it is a nation."

"The War That Will End War."

"The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing field of Eton."

"A time will come when a politician who has wilfully made war and promoted international dissension will be as sure of the dock and much surer of the noose than a private homicide. It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not stake their own."

"Up Guards and at 'em!"

"They went to war against a preamble, they fought seven years against a declaration."

"Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won."

"The atomic bomb had dwarfed the international issues to complete insignificance. When our minds wandered from the preoccupations of our immediate needs, we speculated upon the possibility of stopping the use of these frightful explosives before the world was utterly destroyed. For to us it seemed quite plain that these bombs and the still greater power of destruction of which they were the precursors might quite easily shatter every relationship and institution of mankind... war must end and that the only way to end war was to have but one government for mankind."

"On to Richmond."

"Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we've been bombing over the years been complaining?"