War, n. 1) The health of the state; 2) The
continuation of state policy with other means; 3) The stateman's game, the
priest's delight, the lawyer's jest, the hired assassin's trade; 4) A quarrel
between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take
boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them
with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against one other.
“…...the
soldiers who were massacring each other in the trenches in the First World War.
They were fighting for nothing. They were fighting for the right to destroy
each other. And in that kind of circumstance no questions of justice arise.
And of course there were rational people, most of them in jail, like Karl
Liebknecht, for example, who pointed that out and were in jail because they did
so, or Bertrand Russell, to take another example on the other side. They were
people who understood that there was no point to the mutual massacre in terms
of any sort of justice and that they ought to call it off.
Now those people were regarded as madmen or lunatics and criminals or whatever,
but of course they were the only sane people around.”
Noam
Chomsky
“The
man who can face vilification and disgrace, who can stand up against the
popular current, even against his friends and his country when he knows he is
right, who can defy those in authority over him, who can take punishment and
prison and remain steadfast - that is a man of courage. The fellow whom you
taunt as a "slacker" because he refuses to turn murdered - he needs
courage. But do you need much courage just to obey orders, to do as you are
told and to fall in line with thousands of others to the tune of general
approval and the Star Spangled Banner?”
Alexander
Berkman
“The
education of the military, from the boot soldier to the highest ranking
officer, inescapably transforms them into enemies of civilian society and of
the people. The uniform itself, with all the ridiculous embellishments that
distinguish the regiments and ranks, all the infantile nonsense that occupies a
large part of military life and would make soldiers seem like clowns if it were
not that they were always a threat - all this separates the military from
society. The garb they wear and the thousand puerile ceremonies in which they
waste their lives, with no object other than training to kill and destroy,
would be humiliating for men who had not lost the last shred of human dignity.
These men would die of shame had they not, through a systematic perversion of
ideas, converted these symbols into a great source of vanity. Passive obedience
is their greatest virtue. Subject to despotic discipline, they end by feeling
horror towards anyone who acts with freedom.”
“How
are a military drilled and trained people to defend freedom, peace and
happiness? This is what Major General O'Ryan has to say of an efficiently
trained generation: "The soldier must be so trained that he becomes a mere
automaton; he must be so trained that it will destroy his initiative; he must
be so trained that he is turned into a machine. The soldier must be forced into
the military noose; he must be jacked up; he must be ruled by his superiors
with pistol in hand."
This was not said by a Prussian Junker; not by a German barbarian... but by an
American major general. And he is right. You cannot conduct war with equals;
you cannot have militarism with free born men, you must have slaves,
automatons, machines, obedient disciplined creatures, who will move, act,
shoot, and kill at the command of their superiors. This is preparedness, and
nothing else.”
“Young
Men: The lowest aim in your life is to become a soldier. The good soldier never
tries to distinguish right from wrong. He never thinks; never reasons; he only
obeys. If he is ordered to fire on his fellow citizens, on his friends, oh his
neighbours, on his relatives, he obeys without hesitation. If he is ordered to
fire down a crowded street when the poor are clamouring for bread, he obeys and
sees the grey hairs of age stained with red and the life tide gushing from the
breasts of women, feeling neither remorse nor sympathy. If he is ordered off as
a firing squad to execute a hero or benefactor, he fires without hesitation,
though he knows the bullet will pierce the noblest hear that ever beat in a
human beast.
A good soldier is a blind, heartless, soulless, murderous machine. He is not a
man. He is not a brute, for brutes only kill in self defence. All that is human
in him, all that is divine in him, all that constitutes the man has been sworn
away when he took the enlistment roll. His mind, his conscience, aye, his very
soul, are in the keeping of his officer.
No man can fall lower than a soldier - it is a depth beneath which we cannot
go.”
“I
spent thirty-three years and four months in active service in the country's
most agile military force, the marines. I served in all ranks from second
lieutenant to major general. And during that period I spent most of my time being
a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In
short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.
I suspected I was just a part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it.
Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought
until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation
while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in
the military service.
Thus I helped make Mexico, and especially Tampico, safe for American oil
interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National
City Bank boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the raping of half-a-dozen
Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. He record for
racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking
house of Brown Brothers and Co. in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican
Republic for the sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras
"right" for American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I
helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.
During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell
rack. I was rewarded with honors, medals, and promotion. Looking back on it, I
feel that I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to
operate a racket in three city districts. The Marines operated on three
continents.”
“The
problem after a war is with the victor. He thinks he has just proven that war
and violence pay. Who will now teach him a lesson?”
“There
are causes worth dying for, but none worth killing for.”
“The
greater the violence, the less revolution.”
“National
security is the cause of national insecurity”
Hagbard
Celine
“The
cause of all wars, riots and injustices is the existence of property.”
St.
Augustine