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