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Quote by Smedley Butler

“War Is A Racket : I suspected I was just 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”

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Smedley Butler

Smedley Butler was an American author, social activist, and military officer, known for his anti-war stance and his works that exposed American imperialism. more

“What kind of victory is it when someone is left defeated? 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 the holy name of liberty and democracy. What is a war criminal? Was not war itself a crime against God and humanity, and, therefore, were not all those who sanctioned, engineered and conducted wars, war criminals? The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty.”

“There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.”

Wells War Peace Enemy Produce Prepared Antiwar

Book:Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious

Source: Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious

“The common excuse for those bringing misfortune on others is that they desire their good.”

War Desire Common Excuse Tyranny Misfortunes Tyrants Antiwar

Author:Luc de Clapiers

“All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. In my opinion, there never was a good war or a bad peace. When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?”

War Opinion Mankind Difficulty Agree Convinced Settling Folly Expensive Anti War Antiwar Vietnam War Peace War Great War Mischievous Horror Of War Good War Arbitration

Author:Benjamin Franklin

“Throughout the history of the United States , war has been the primary impetus behind the growth and development of the central state. It has been the lever by which presidents and other national officials have bolstered the power of the state in the face of tenacious popular resistance.”

Source: War and the Rise of the State: The Military Foundations of Modern Politics

“Studies by Medical Corps psychiatrists of combat fatigue cases... found that fear of killing, rather than fear of being killed, was the most common cause of battle failure, and that fear of failure ran a strong second.”

War Found Strong Causes Common Cases Study Battle Killing Medical Ran Combat Antiwar Fatigue Fear Of Failure Psychiatrist

Book:Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command in Future War

Source: Men Against Fire: The Problem of Battle Command in Future War

“In reviewing the history of the English Government, its wars and its taxes, a bystander, not blinded by prejudice nor warped by interest, would declare that taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.”

War Government Interest Taxes Prejudice Raised Antiwar Blinded Bystanders English Government

Book:THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…

Source: THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…

“... the United States, for generations, has sustained two parallel but opposed states of mind about military atrocities and human rights: one of U.S. benevolence, generally held by the public, and the other of ends-justify-the-means brutality sponsored by counterinsurgency specialists. Normally the specialists carry out their actions in remote locations with little notice in the national press. That allows the public to sustain its faith in a just America, while hard-nosed security and economic interests are still protected in secret.”

“A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift, is approaching spiritual death.I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor.”

Quote by Smedley Butler

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