Whatever Happened to Voluntary Military Service?

The attempt of the United States to make military service attractive by offering high pay, free college education, and other benefits looks suspiciously like bribing the child with candy.

Source: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948

Approval

Deputies have spoken about whether dead men would approve of it, and they have spoken whether children yet unborn would approve it, but few have spoken of whether the living approve it.

Source: General Michael Collins, Dáil debate, Christmas 1921
Taken From: www.GeneralMichaelCollins.com

Torture

We tortured people unmercifully.  We probably murdered dozens of them during a course of that, both by the armed forces and CIA.

Source: General Barry McCaffrey, DailyKos Transcript of MSBC Interview, April 20th 2009
Taken From:  Ron Paul, Liberty Defined (pg 49) section on Civil Disobedience, 2011

World of Giants and Infants

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.

Source:  General Omar N. Bradley, Armistice Day Speech, Nov 11th, 1948
Taken From:  AntiWar.com Quotes

What does it Profit?

Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends.
But what does it profit the masses?
What does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit the men who are maimed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children?
What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits?

Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler (1935, War is a Racket)
"Old Gimlet Eye" was the most decorated Marine at the time of his death in 1940

Proper Defense

Think it over, my dear fellow Americans.  Can't we be satisfied with defending our own homes, our own women, our own children?  Right here in America?  There are only two reasons why you should ever be asked to give your youngsters.  One is defense of our homes.  The other is he defense of our Bill of Rights and particularly the right to worship God as we see fit.  Every other reason advanced for the murder of young men is a racket, pure and simple.

Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler (1939, Essay from Common Sense Neutrality)

Closing Statement from Essay

A "Glorious Adventure"

Beautiful ideals were painted for our boys who were sent out to die.  This was the "war to end wars."  This was the "war to make the world safe for democracy."  No one told them that dollars and cents were the real reason.  No one mentioned to them, as they marched away, that their going and their dying would mean huge war profits.  No one told these American soldiers that they might be shot down by bullets made by their own brothers here.  No one told them that the ships on which they were going to cross might be torpedoed by submarines built with United States patents.  They were just told it was to be a "glorious adventure."

Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler , 1935
Source:  War is a Racket - Link

Example of Waste during WWI

One very versatile patriot sold Uncle Sam twelve dozen 48-inch wrenches.  Oh, they were very nice wrenches.  The only trouble was that there was only one nut ever made that was large enough for these wrenches.  That is the one that holds the turbines at Niagara Falls!

Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler (1935, War is a Racket)

This quote was taken from a larger section describing the large amount of money that was transferred from the people, to the government, to the war profiteering corporations.  This particular example is one of the smaller, but more "silly" ones.

A Peaceful Rally Cry

So ... I say, "TO HELL WITH WAR!"

Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler (1935, War is a Racket)

This was the closing statement to War is a Racket

Christ

There is something which makes Christianity more than a religion, more than an ethic, and more than the idle dream of the sentimental idealist. It is this something that makes it relevant to each one of us right now as a contemporary experience. It is the fact that Christ Himself is the very life content of the Christian faith. It is He who makes it “tick.”

Major W. Ian Thomas (The Saving Life of Christ, 1961)

Safety

A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for.  Be good ships.  Sail out to sea and do new things.

Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (1984)

Innocent Deaths

We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat,

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal (2010)

Israel and American Lives

Israel's intransigence could cost American lives.

 Admiral Mike Mullen and General David Petraeus

Volunteer Defense

I hate to think of the day my grandchildren will be defended by volunteers.

Lewis Hershey, 4 Star US General, 2nd Director of the Selective Service System, delivered at a National Press Club luncheon.

War and Country

The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his.

Gen. George Patton