Collecting bottles, tossing leftovers, taking out the garbage
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War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. Major General Smedley Butler
War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.
Major General Smedley Butler
There have been 5,600 years of written history and 14,600 wars have been recorded. James Hillman
There have been 5,600 years of written history and 14,600 wars have been recorded.
James Hillman
I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war, . . . suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own. Philip Caputo
I guess every generation is doomed to fight its war, . . . suffer the loss of the same old illusions, and learn the same old lessons on its own.
Philip Caputo
I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die. Mary Roberts Rinehart
I hate those men who would send into war youth to fight and die for them; the pride and cowardice of those old men, making their wars that boys must die.
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties. George W. Bush, prior to the invasion of Iraq
Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties.
George W. Bush, prior to the invasion of Iraq
Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball. King Charles V the Wise
Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball.
King Charles V the Wise
Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. George Orwell
Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.
George Orwell
Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on. Kurt Vonnegut
Here’s what I think the truth is: We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we’re hooked on.
Kurt Vonnegut
I cannot help but wonder what it will be like for the young men and women wounded in Iraq. . . . For us, in 1968, it was the Bronx veterans hospital paraplegic ward, overcrowded, understaffed, rats on the ward, . . . urine bags overflowing onto the floor. It seemed more like a slum than a hospital. Paralyzed men lying in their own excrement, pushing call buttons for aides who never came, wondering how our government could spend so much money on the most lethal, technologically advanced weaponry to kill and maim human beings but not be able to take care of its own wounded when they came home. . . . Has any of it changed? Ron Kovic
I cannot help but wonder what it will be like for the young men and women wounded in Iraq. . . . For us, in 1968, it was the Bronx veterans hospital paraplegic ward, overcrowded, understaffed, rats on the ward, . . . urine bags overflowing onto the floor. It seemed more like a slum than a hospital. Paralyzed men lying in their own excrement, pushing call buttons for aides who never came, wondering how our government could spend so much money on the most lethal, technologically advanced weaponry to kill and maim human beings but not be able to take care of its own wounded when they came home. . . . Has any of it changed?
Ron Kovic
Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country. Bertrand Russell
Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.
Bertrand Russell
Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it. Simone Weil
Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it.
Simone Weil
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots. Barbara Ehrenreich
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Barbara Ehrenreich
I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more war. Abbie Hoffman
I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more war.
Abbie Hoffman
If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace. John Lennon
If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.
John Lennon
Here I am in Books 5, 6, and 7 of The Iliad, looking in on the clamorous terror of Homeric battle. Lances are being driven clear through eye sockets, livers, and genitals, brains pour out of mouths and severed heads, limbless torsos spin like marbles about the black-blooded earth, men catch their gushing bowels in their hands, crashing “thunderously as towering oaks” onto the blood-soaked ground, and throughout this mayhem there remains on both sides one obsession, one concern: to call an occasional truce that will let each side bury its dead properly. So onto this field of carnage warriors ride, carrying the olive branch, announcing a respite that will enable each camp to carry out its funeral rites. By mutual consent, and for this purpose only, all fighting stops. Francine du Plessix Gray
Here I am in Books 5, 6, and 7 of The Iliad, looking in on the clamorous terror of Homeric battle. Lances are being driven clear through eye sockets, livers, and genitals, brains pour out of mouths and severed heads, limbless torsos spin like marbles about the black-blooded earth, men catch their gushing bowels in their hands, crashing “thunderously as towering oaks” onto the blood-soaked ground, and throughout this mayhem there remains on both sides one obsession, one concern: to call an occasional truce that will let each side bury its dead properly. So onto this field of carnage warriors ride, carrying the olive branch, announcing a respite that will enable each camp to carry out its funeral rites. By mutual consent, and for this purpose only, all fighting stops.
Francine du Plessix Gray
In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. José Narosky
In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.
José Narosky
And when it was claimed / the war had ended, it had not ended. Denise Levertov
And when it was claimed / the war had ended, it had not ended.
Denise Levertov
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. Michael Servetus
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.
Michael Servetus
Some readers might think your inclusion of George W. Bush’s quote in the March 2007 Sunbeams — “Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties” — is a poke at the president. I did, until I realized that it’s actually a frightening commentary on the attitude of the “most powerful man in the world.” When the commander in chief is that ignorant, is it any wonder that four years after the invasion of Iraq we’re bogged down in a civil war?