Soldier of Glory, How Many Ears Must One Man Have Before He Can Hear People Cry?

To continue my offering of quotes regarding war, I present the wisdom of my favorite quotes from famous and not so famous military soldiers.

Regarding the cruelty of war, General Robert E. Lee said:

• "What a cruel thing is war...to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world."
• "The war...was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides."
• What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness god has given us in this world..."
  

Regarding war, politics, patriotism & courage, the following soldiers said:

• "We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing that we know about living." ~ General Omar N. Bradley
• "The military doesn't start wars. The politicians start wars." ~ General William Westmoreland
• "There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket." ~ General Smedley Butler
• "Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it." ~ General Douglas MacArthur
• "The dangerous patriot...drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasm for military actions." ~ Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps
• "Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency." ~ General Douglas MacArthur
• "War: A wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization." ~ General Omar N. Bradley
• "I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar soaked fingers out of the business of these [Third World] nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own. And if, unfortunately, their revolution must be of the violent type because the "haves" refuse to share with the "have-nots" by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don't want and above all don't want crammed down their throats by Americans." ~ General David Sharp
• "I hate it when they say, ‘He gave his life for his country.’ They don’t die for the honor and glory of their country. We kill them." ~ Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque
• "War is just a racket...I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else." ~ General Smedley Butler
• "Any forces that would impose their will on other nations will certainly face defeat." ~ General Vo Nguyen Giap, Vietnam
• "It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell." ~ General William Tecumseh Sherman
• "The reality right now is that the most dangerous opinion in the world is the opinion of a U.S. serviceman." ~ Lance Cpl. Devin Kelly
• "The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault." ~ Major Ralph Peters
• "It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear." ~ General Douglas MacArthur
• "The dangerous patriot...is a defender of militarism and its ideals of war and glory." ~ Colonel James A. Donovan, Marine Corps
• "Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants." ~ General Omar N. Bradley
• "War is a racket. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." ~ General Smedley Butler
• "Putting aside all the fancy words and academic doubletalk, the basic reason for having a military is to do two jobs --to kill people and to destroy." ~ General Thomas S. Power
• " Vietnam was the first war ever fought without censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind." ~ General William Westmoreland
• "I learned nothing from war. War is not an activity for human beings; war is for criminals—rape, robbery and murder." ~ Roman Podabedov, Russian anti-tank gunner
• "War has become a spectator sport for Americans." ~Rear Admiral Gene R. LaRocque
• "War is at best barbarism. Its glory is all moonshine...War is hell." ~ General William Tecumseh Sherman
• "War is fear cloaked in courage." ~ General William Westmoreland

What does it all mean?

Previously, I published war quotes from former Presidents in "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" It is my intention to soon publish additional blog articles regarding war that utilize quotes from statesmen, philosophers & world leaders. Why do I bother?

I am very troubled that the government of my country has needlessly attacked and killed thousands from another land. My country is one where I have honorably & proudly served in the US Army. Yet, my country is trying to address it's failure in "packaging" it's honor by offering a $40,000 bonus to anyone who will enlist in the military. If this is not a bribe for one's soul, then it is outsourcing of the worst kind. It is outsourcing the responsiblity for truth of our citizens to those who are desperate.

So what is this undeclared war about?

I will close with a quote from Simon Jenkins of The Times:

“The crime was never 'an assault on democracy'. If Western democracy cannot withstand a suicide bomb attack on an office block, it is pathetic indeed. The crime was directed not against democracy but against Western policies in the Middle East.”

War on Terror, Indeed!

Mr. President, Where have all the flowers gone?

Over 30 years ago I came to the intellectual and emotional conclusion that there was nothing glorious about war. No matter how many John Wayne type of movies that I watched, I absolutely knew that there was no cause or reason that could justify the uniformed mass killing of mankind.

I challenge all readers of this article by asking you: Have you ever come to peace with you thoughts on war as a method on resolving conflict? Furthermore, have you thought about the specific consequences in innocent human terms that result from a leader’s cavalier decision to militarily attack another mass of humans?

Recently, during my readings, I discovered a computer file that contains more than 700 quotes and thoughts regarding the idea of "War". These quotes are from Presidents, World Leaders, Statesmen, Soldiers, Authors, Philosophers and Religious Leaders. As I read the quotes and noted my respect and knowledge of who provided them, I recognized that I was reinforcing my own personal realizations on the concept of war that I first learned over 30 years ago.

It is an excellent study for the open-minded and below I offer some of the most profound (as determined by me) by the category of former Presidents.

Regarding war & dissent President Dwight D. Eisenhower said:

• "May we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."
• "We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."
• "Together we must learn how to compose difference, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose..."
• "There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs."
• "I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."
• "We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security."
• "How far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without?"
• "When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it without me. After my experience, I have come to hate war."
• "I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it."
• "War settles nothing."

Regarding war & principles President Thomas Jefferson said:

• "I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be"
• "If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest."
• "Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government."
  "War...is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer."
• "Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it."
• "They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property, and lives of their people."
• "We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest."
• "The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force."
• "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
• "I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind."

Regarding war & patriotism President Theodore Roosevelt said:

• "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official."
• "That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
• Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
• "...to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."
• "It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else."

Regarding war & glory President Abraham Lincoln said:

• "Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure."
• "Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived."
• "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
• "Military glory--that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood--that serpent's eye, that charms to destroy..."
• "I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends."
• "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."

Regarding war & liberty President James Madison said:

• "Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other."
• "The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature."
• "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
• "All men having power ought to be mistrusted."
• "The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war."
• "It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."

Regarding war, power, peace, duty & life the following Presidents said:

• "Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes...can no longer be of concern to great powers alone." ~ John F. Kennedy
• "History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap." ~ Ronald Reagan
• "We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." ~ Jimmy Carter
• "The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure." ~ Lyndon B. Johnson
• " Old men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die." ~ Herbert Hoover
• "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." ~ John F. Kennedy
• "Power always thinks...that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws." ~ John Adams
• "We Americans have no commission from God to police the world." ~ Benjamin Harrison
• " Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means." ~ Ronald Reagan
• "America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all." ~ John Q. Adams
• "Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions." ~ Ulysses S. Grant
• "The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure." ~ George Washington
• "...no mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology." ~ Ronald Reagan
• "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ John F. Kennedy
• "Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war." ~ John Adams
• "People do not make wars; governments do." ~ Ronald Reagan
• "Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness." ~ George Washington
• "War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." ~ John F. Kennedy
• "It is the youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow...that are the aftermath of war." ~ Herbert Hoover
• "Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." ~ George Washington

The current questionably elected leader of my federal government attacked another mass of people for not yet explained reasons. War was not declared as required by the U. S. Constitution. Tens of Thousands (perhaps more) of innocent lives have been needlessly extinguished. Over $175,000,000,000.00 of American taxes have been wasted.

Many of the Presidents noted above are military warriors themselves. Instead of infrequently and casually protecting the skies over Texas, they experienced the real horrors of war. I am saddened that the wisdom of this history was not consulted.

History will judge.

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young girls gone?
Taken husbands every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Covered with flowers every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

~ words and music by Pete Seeger