ALL WE ARE SAYING

Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.

~ John F. Kennedy

It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood...War is hell.

~ General William Tecumseh Sherman

Peace is the only battle worth waging.

~ Albert Camus

For me war has become a flat, black depression without highlights, a revulsion of the mind and an exhaustion of the spirit.

I've been immersed in it too long. My spirit is wobbly and my mind is confused. The hurt has become too great.

~ Ernie Pyle

I was a Gangster for Capitalism
by Major General Smedley Butler
November 1935

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 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.

(snip)

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 - June 21, 1940) was at the time of his death the most decorated U.S. Marine in history. He was twice the recipient of the Medal of Honor, one of only nineteen to be so honored.

We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower 1961

Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear.

~ General Douglas MacArthur

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

The Department of Defense is the behemoth...With an annual budget larger than the gross domestic product of Russia, it is an empire.

~ The 9/11 Commission Report

Our nation is somewhat sad, but we're angry. There's a certain level of blood lust, but we won't let it drive our reaction. We're steady, clear-eyed and patient, but pretty soon we'll have to start displaying scalps.

~ George W. Bush

If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.

~ George W. Bush

I want to scare the hell out of the rest of the world.

~ General Colin Powell

I think the view from 100,000 miles could be invaluable in getting people together to work out our joint solutions, b causing them to realize that the planet we share unites us in a way far more basic and far more important than differences in skin color or religion or economic systems. The pity of it is that so far the view from 100,000 miles has been the exclusive property of a handful of test pilots, rather than the world leaders who need this new perspective, or the poets who might communicate them.

~ Michael Collins - Apollo 11

America... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.

~ Hunter S. Thompson

Human Beings, indeed all sentient beings, have the right to pursue happiness and live in peace and freedom.

~ The XIVth Dalai Lama

The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.

~ Desiderius Erasmus

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

~ Albert Einstein

Nothing is more precious than peace. Peace is the most basic starting point for the advancement of humankind.

~ Daisaku Ikeda

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Deja Vu (All Over Again)"

Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Did you try to read the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I've heard it all before
It's like Deja Vu all over again

Day by day I hear the voices rising
Started with a whisper like it did before
Day by day we count the dead and dying
Ship the bodies home while the networks all keep score

Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Could your eyes believe the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I've heard it all before
It's like Deja Vu all over again

One by one I see the old ghosts rising
Stumblin' 'cross Big Muddy
Where the light gets dim
Day after day another Momma's crying
She's lost her precious child
To a war that has no end

Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Did you stop to read the writing at The Wall
Did that voice inside you say
I've seen this all before
It's like Deja Vu all over again
It's like Deja Vu all over again

~ John Fogerty

All We Are Saying