[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
->Isn't war a terrible thing?
-->-- '''Zeke Yeager''', ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''

->War is not heroic. War is not exhilarating.\\
It is dark. It is dreadful. It is a thing of sorrow and gloom.\\
That is why people fear war. That is why people choose to avoid it.
-->-- '''Izuru Kira''', ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''

->In the battlefield, there is no place for hope. What lies there is only cold despair and a sin called victory, built on the pain of the defeated. All those people who met there have wholeheartedly admitted the evil and foolishness of this act called "war." As long as people don't repent and don't regard it as the most evil taboo, then hell would endlessly reappear in the world.
-->-- '''Emiya Kiritsugu''', ''Literature/FateZero''

-->You must've lost hope. War destroys it all.
-->-- '''Tanosuke Hata''', ''Anime/FutureRobotDaltanious''

->This is a war without victory.
-->-- '''The President of the USA''', ''Anime/FutureWar198X''

->Since the war started, they were the first to lose their lives. But you were there too, commanding in the midst of fighting. Peasants that were cheerfully delivering milk until yesterday, return all banged up today. Every day. Until the war ends, it will continue day in and day out. Can you really handle that?
-->-- ''Manga/MaidenRose''

->''"I can't exactly fight a war with a big smile on my face."''''
-->-- '''Athrun Zala''', ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED''

->A person becomes naïve if they're too kind. Careless if they're too bold. And no matter how hard you try to protect others, there's no gratitude. Those who can't comprehend such things aren't fit to be magical girls.
-->-- '''Homura Akemi''', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''

->Hey, [[WasItReallyWorthIt is this world even worth protecting? What have I been fighting for all this time?]] Answer me. Right now! Come on, ''tell me!'' [[SanitySlippage Or]] [[TheHeartless else...]]
-->-- '''Sayaka Miki''', ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''

->Asuna... I... didn't know anything. How horrifying war is... how painful it is to lose... I didn’t know anything...
-->-- '''Rika "Lisbeth" Shinozaki''', ''Literature/SwordArtOnline''

->'''Sylvia:''' Have any of you ever killed anyone before? Have you ever been killed before?\\
'''Terrorist:''' ''Obviously not, ya dumb broad!''\\
'''Sylvia:''' Have you ever had a limb torn off by an artillery shell?\\
'''Terrorist:''' Huh?\\
'''Sylvia:''' Have you ever heard the sound of bones shattering? Have you ever smelled the reek of rotting flesh?\\
'''Terrorist:''' What are you going on about, lady?\\
'''Sylvia:''' Have you ever found the crushed bodies of your parents and siblings in a pile of rubble that used to be your home? Have you ever discovered a blown-off piece of your lover stuck to a wall? Have you ever been so hungry you tried to eat tree bark? Have you ever [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty stewed human flesh in a pot]]? Have you ever [[{{Demonization}} convinced yourself your enemy was sub-human so you could slaughter them like animals]]? [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Have you ever been so haunted by shame and regret afterward that you cried until you puked]]? Have you ever had friends who did the same, [[DrivenToSuicide and took their own lives]]?\\
''[Sylvia presses a gun against the terrorist's forehead]''\\
'''Terrorist:''' Eee...\\
'''Sylvia:''' Did you learn ''nothing'' about war at your university?
-->-- ''Manga/SPYxFAMILY''

->It's good that war is miserable. The fewer people who decide they like it, the better.
-->-- '''Tanya Degurechaff''', paraphrasing Robert E. Lee, ''Literature/TheSagaOfTanyaTheEvil''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
->Listen, you folks at home... Today we won a piece of Sov-Cities' dirt. So what? Three good men died for it -- that's what matters. Sometimes war is necessary--but don't ever let creeps like this one tell you it's fun.\\
War is pointless. War is evil.\\
'''''WAR IS HELL!'''''
-->-- '''Comicbook/JudgeDredd'''

->''"You wish to know of war, old man? I saw the blood flow as two worlds snuffed each other out. I saw the black hatred of generations extinguish themselves. My father killed a family of screaming Majesdanians in front of me when I was five. I cried, so I was left with the corpses for three days. I have no innocence. I have no ideals. You wish to see war, old man? I will show you the face of war!"''
-->-- '''Xavin''', ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}''

->'''[[NaiveNewcomer Ironfist]]:''' He shot him in the ''head'', Perceptor! In the ''head''! This isn't what being a Wrecker's about... saving lives, yes. Dramatic rescues, yes. And having ''adventures! What's wrong with just having adventures?'' But ''that''? Back ''there''? With the ''laughing'' and the ''gun'' and all the... all the ''viscera''? That was ''not'' part of the deal.\\
'''Topspin:''' What's ''with'' you? First the blackouts, now this! How's you even ''land'' this gig, Ironfist? Pyro, Guzzle, Rotorstorm -- we ''voted'' them in. Not you... we were just ''told'' you were coming along! You're a hanger-on! A tourist! This isn't ''role-play''. People ''die'' in stupid, pointless ways. ''Deal'' with it.
-->-- ''ComicBook/TheTransformersLastStandOfTheWreckers''

->Some have said that war is Hell. War is ''not'' Hell... [[InsultToRocks for in Hell]], [[AnyoneCanDie innocence is spared]].
-->-- '''Tai Kaliso''', ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' ExpandedUniverse comic books.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]

->'''Calvin:''' Dad, how do soldiers killing each other solve the world's problems?\\
''[awkward silence]''\\
'''Calvin:''' ''[walking away]'' I think grown-ups just ''act'' like they know what they're doing.
-->-- ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
->This is not a promotion, it is a burden that you and you alone will shoulder. You will fight, you will struggle, and you will fall. You will see the worst things a man can do to another living being. In this war, that is the truth you will know.
-->-- '''Kyril Sutherland''', to his two [[TheApprentice apprentices]], ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls''

->There was a little girl. Maybe, eight years old? I dunno. She'd lost both her legs. Just kept staring at them. Little stumps, cauterized by fire somehow. A little girl, all alone, looking at where her legs were, not understanding anything. Just... staring. Blank little eyes. Staring.
-->-- ''Fanfic/TiberiumWars''

->We forge futures out of pain and grief, Commander. The computers and the communications officers and the [=EVAs=] and the displays only serve to isolate us so we can be inhuman. We're monsters, son. Cold, mechanical, rational monsters, and the only way we win is by being colder, more mechanical, and more rational than the next monster moving his little pieces on the screen. That's how war has been fought since [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert Stalin rolled into the Allies a century ago.]] [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall You point, you click, and they die. It's how it works.]]
-->-- '''Colonel Nick Parker''', ''Fanfic/TiberiumWars'' "Chapter XVIII"

->Cell... [[EvilCannotComprehendGood you don't get it]]. I ''hate'' this. The vibrations through my fists on contact... the taste of blood in my mouth... the sound of my heart in my ears... [[MartialPacifist I]] ''[[MartialPacifist hate]]'' [[MartialPacifist it]]. I always have. [[TranquilFury But right now... in this moment...]] the only thing I hate more than ''it''... is ''[[NiceJobFixingItVillain you]]''.
-->-- '''Gohan''', ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
->'''Taran:''' Oh, Dallben, I was just thinking. What of the war's over, and I never had a chance to fight?\\
'''Dallben:''' Hmm... And a good thing, too! War isn't a game. People get hurt!
-->--''WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron''

->Well, ''this'' is what looks like when you've actually fought in battle. It's not glorious, it's not beautiful... it's not even heroic! It's merely doing what's right! And doing it again and again, even if someday you look like this.
-->-- '''Ezylryb''', a.k.a. Lyze Of Kiel, ''WesternAnimation/LegendOfTheGuardiansTheOwlsOfGaHoole''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
->You still think it's beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment taught us better. When it comes to dying for country, it's better not to die at all..
-->-- '''Paul Bäumer''', ''Film/AllQuietOnTheWesternFront1930'' (film)

->Up at the front you're alive or you're dead, and that's all! You can't fool anybody about that very long. Up there we know we're lost and done for whether we're dead or alive. Three years we've had of it... four years. Every day a year and every night a century. Our bodies are earth and our thoughts are clay, and we sleep and eat with death.
-->-- '''Paul Bäumer''', ''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (film)


->I was talking to Blackburn the other day, and he asked me "What changed? Why are we going home?" and I said "Nothing." That's not true either; I think everything's changed. I know I've changed... You know a friend of mine asked me before I got here; it's when we were all shipping out. He asked me "Why are you going to fight somebody else's war? What, do you think you're heroes?" I didn't know what to say at the time, but if he'd ask me again I'd say no. I'd say there's no way in hell. Nobody asks to be a hero... It just sometimes turns out that way.
-->-- '''SSG Matt Eversmann''', ''Film/BlackHawkDown''

->We were in this bar in Saigon and this kid comes up, this kid carrying a shoe-shine box. And he says "Shine, please, shine!" I said no. He kept askin', yeah, and Joey said "Yeah." And I went to get a couple of beers, and the box was wired, and he opened up the box, fucking blew his body all over the place. And he's laying there, he's fucking screaming. There's pieces of him all over me, just... like this, and I'm tryin' to pull him off, you know, my friend that's all over me! I've got blood and everything and I'm tryin' to hold him together! I'm puttin'... the guy's fuckin' insides keep coming out! And nobody would help! Nobody would help! He's saying, sayin' "I wanna go home! I wanna go home!" He keeps calling my name! "I wanna go home, Johnny! I wanna drive my Chevy!" I said "With what? I can't find your fuckin' legs! I can't find your legs!" I can't get it out of my head. A dream of seven years. Everyday I have this. And sometimes I wake up and I don't know where I am. I don't talk to anybody. Sometimes a day - a week. I can't put it out of my mind.
-->-- '''John Rambo''', ''Film/FirstBlood''

->''"Old men start it. Young men fight it. Nobody wins. Everybody in the middle dies. And nobody tells the truth!"''
-->-- '''John Rambo''', ''Film/RamboIV''

->'''Door Gunner:''' [[MoreDakka Git some! Git some! Git some! Yeah, yeah, yeah!]] Anyone who runs is a VC. Anyone who stands still is a well-disciplined VC! You should do a story about me sometime!\\
'''Private Joker:''' Why should we do a story about you?\\
'''Door Gunner''': [[BadassBoast 'Cause I'm so fucking good! That ain't no shit either!]] I done got me 157 Gooks killed and [[KickTheDog fifty water buffalo]] too! They were all certified.\\
'''Private Joker:''' Any women or children?\\
'''Door Gunner:''' Sometimes!\\
'''Private Joker:''' How can you shoot [[WouldHitAGirl women]] and [[WouldHurtAChild children]]?\\
'''Door Gunner:''' Easy, [[LeadTheTarget you just don't lead 'em so much!]] Ain't war hell?
-->-- ''Film/FullMetalJacket''

->''"I've had my ass in the grass. Can't say I liked it much. Lots of bugs and too dangerous. As it happens, my present duties keep me where I belong. In the rear with the gear."''
-->--'''Lt. Lockhart''', ''Film/FullMetalJacket''

->I've never seen so many men wasted so badly.
-->-- '''[[Creator/ClintEastwood Blondie]]''', ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly''

->You want to know what it's like to kill a man? Well it's goddamn awful, that's what it is. The only thing worse is getting a medal of valour for killing some poor kid that wanted to "just give up, that's all." Yeah, some scared little gook just like you. I shot him right in the face with that rifle you were holding in there a while ago. There's not a day goes by that I don't think about it. You don't want that on your soul. [[TheseHandsHaveKilled But I got blood on my hands.]] I'm soiled.
-->-- '''Walt Kowalski''', ''Film/GranTorino''

->Another two inches? Shrapnel zings by; slices my throat. I'll bleed out like a pig in the sand; nobody'll give a shit. I mean my parents? They'll care, but they don't count, man. Who else? I don't even have a son.
-->-- '''Sergeant J.T. Sanborn''', ''Film/TheHurtLocker''

->[[FluffyTheTerrible Betty]] has gone too far. Killing is wrong. And bad. There should be a new, stronger word for killing, like "badwrong", or "badong". Yes, killing is badong. From this point forward, I shall stand for the opposite of killing... gnodab.
-->-- '''TheChosenOne''', ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist''


->Here is better than home, eh, sir? I mean at home if you kill someone they arrest you, here they'll give you a gun and show you what to do, sir. I mean, I killed fifteen of those buggers. Now at home they'd hang me, here they'll give me a fucking medal, sir.
-->-- '''Zulu War Soldier''', ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife''

->I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy, we fought ourselves, and the enemy was in us. The war is over for me now, but it will always be there, the rest of my days. As I'm sure Elias will be, fighting with Barnes for what Rhah called "possesion of my soul." There are times since, I've felt like a child, born of those two fathers. But be that as it may, those of us, who did make it have an obligation to build again. To teach to others what we know, and to try with what's left of our lives to find a goodness and a meaning to this life.
-->-- '''Chris Taylor''', ''Film/{{Platoon}}''

->Sometimes when people go to Vietnam, they go home to their mommas without any legs. Sometimes they don’t go home at all. That’s a bad thing. That's all I have to say about that.
-->-- '''Film/ForrestGump'''

->Great warrior? Hah! Wars not make one great!
-->-- '''Yoda''', ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''

->This great evil. Where does it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who's doin' this? Who's killin' us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin' us with the sight of what we might've known. Does our ruin benefit the earth? Does it help the grass to grow, the sun to shine? Is this darkness in you, too? Have you passed through this night?
-->-- '''Private Edward P. Train''', ''Film/TheThinRedLine''

->I've killed men. I've heard them dying, I've watched them dying, and there's nothing glorious about it! Nothing poetic! You say you're willing to die for love, but you know nothing about dying and you know nothing about love!
-->--'''Hector''' to Paris, ''Film/{{Troy}}''

->[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. ]]

-->-- '''JOSHUA''', ''Film/WarGames''

->''"War brings out the worst in people."''
-->--'''Oskar Schindler''', ''Film/SchindlersList''

->''"The year is 1645, England is in the grip of bloody civil war. On the one side stand the Royalist party of King Charles, on the other, Cromwell's Parliamentary party: the Roundheads. The structure of law and order has collapsed. Local Magistrates indulge their individual whims, justice and injustice are dispensed in more or less equal quantities, without opposition. An atmosphere in which the unscrupulous revel, and the likes of Matthew Hopkins take full advantage of the situation. In a time where the superstitions of country folk are still a powerful factor, Hopkins preys upon them, torturing and killing in a supposed drive to eliminate witchcraft from the country, and doing so with the full blessing of what law there is. However, his influence is confined largely to the Eastern Sector of the country: East Anglia, which is held firmly in Cromwell's grasp, but not so firmly that Roundhead cavalry patrols have everything their way. For there persists an ever present threat of the remnants of the Royalist armies, desperately foraging for food, horses and supplies."''
-->--'''UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell''', ''Film/WitchfinderGeneral''

->'''Ace:''' War... is hell. The last thing we want... is a fight.\\
'''[[TrollingTranslator Ouda]]:''' ''[in the Wachootoo language, subtitled]'' "I want to fight... so go to hell!"
-->-- ''Film/AceVenturaWhenNatureCalls''

->''"I guess we all died a little in that damn war."''
-->-- '''Josey Wales''', ''Film/TheOutlawJoseyWales''

->''"Most of the miseries of the world were caused by wars, and when the wars were over, no one ever knew what they were about."''
-->-- '''Ashley Wilkes''', ''Film/GoneWithTheWind''

->''"The enemy? His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is, where he comes from, and if he really was evil at heart. What lies or threats led him on this long march from home, or he would not rather have stayed there... in peace. War will make corpses of us all."''
-->-- '''Faramir''', ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers''

->''"I hoped today might be a good day. [[HopeSpot Hope is a dangerous thing.]] That's it for now, then next week, Command will send a different message: "Attack at dawn." There is only one way this war ends: Last man standing."''
-->-- '''Colonel [=MacKenzie=]''', upon receiving an official order to abort the ongoing attack on the German forces, ''Film/NineteenSeventeen''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
->This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.
-->-- ''Literature/AllQuietOnTheWesternFront'', epigraph

->The silence spreads. I talk and must talk. So I speak to him and say to him: "Comrade, I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony — forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother, just like Kat and Albert. Take twenty years of my life, comrade, and stand up — take more, for I do not know what I can even attempt to do with it now."
-->-- '''Paul''', ''Literature/AllQuietOnTheWesternFront''

->The morning is grey, it was still summer when we came up, and we were one hundred and fifty strong. Now we freeze, it is autumn, the leaves rustle, the voices flutter out wearily: "One- Two- Three- Four-" and cease at thirty-two. And there is a long silence before the voice asks: "Anyone else?"- and waits and then says softly: "In squads-" and then breaks off and is only able to finish: "Second Company-" with difficulty: "Second Company- March easy!"\\
A line, a short line trudges off into the morning. Thirty-two men.
-->-- ''Literature/AllQuietOnTheWesternFront''

->Kill the enemy... Dress it up however you want, that's what war is about. If there's glory in there somewhere, I must have missed it.
-->-- '''Jake''', ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''

->War makes [[TitleDrop monsters out of men]].
-->-- '''Todd''', ''Literature/MonstersOfMen''

->I have marched in many a battle host, but I have also planted seeds and reaped the harvest with my own hands. And I have learned there is greater honor in a field well plowed than in a field steeped in blood.
-->-- '''Adaon, son of Taliesin''', ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain''

->It was war, you dumb kid. Everybody I liked got killed, and most of the folks I'd just as soon have shot made it out with medals on their chests. It wasn't fair and it sure as hell wasn't any fun.
-->-- ''[[Literature/ClockworkCentury Boneshaker]]''

->If they want new boots or a warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron halfhelm, they need to take them from a corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the smallfolk whose lands they’re fighting in, men very like the men they used to be. They slaughter their sheep and steal their chickens, and from there it’s just a short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don’t know where they are or how to get back home and the lord they’re fighting for does not know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And the knights come down on them, faceless men clad all in steel, and the iron thunder of their charge seems to fill the world...\\
And the man breaks.\\
He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, [[DangerousDeserter the traveler must beware of broken men]], and fear them... but he should pity them as well.
-->-- '''Septon Meribald''', ''Literature/AFeastForCrows''

->I think Peeta was onto something about us destroying one another and letting some decent species take over. Because something is significantly wrong with a creature that sacrifices its children's lives to settle its differences. You can spin it any way you like. Snow thought the Hunger Games were an efficient means of control. [[spoiler:Coin thought the parachutes would expedite the war.]] But in the end, who does it benefit? No one. The truth is, no one benefits in a world where these things happen.
-->-- '''Katniss''', ''Literature/TheHungerGames''

->So did all those kids die thinking of democracy and freedom and liberty and honor and the safety of the home and the stars and stripes forever? You're goddamn right they didn't. They died crying in their minds like little babies. They forgot the thing they were fighting for the things they were dying for. They thought about things a man can understand. They died yearning for the face of a friend. They died whimpering for the voice of a mother, a father, a wife, a child. They died with their hearts sick for one more look at the place where they were born, please god just one more look. They died moaning and sighing for life. They knew what was important. They knew that life was everything and they died with screams and sobs. They died with only one thought in their minds and that was "I want to live I want to live I want to live."
-->-- '''Dalton Trumbo''', ''Literature/JohnnyGotHisGun''

->'''I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men.\\
They are not.\\
They're running at [[TheGrimReaper me.]]'''
-->-- '''Death''', ''Literature/TheBookThief''

-> We are soldiers from either side of that battle—and are we not equally maimed? The soldiers never win in any battle—only their leaders are victors. The soldiers fight and suffer; some live, some die—many like us don't quite die, but must live on as miserable human wreckage, while our leaders grow old in the luxury we suffered to win for them. Generals and princes live in glory, but the soldier dies in pain.
-->-- '''Byr''', "[[Literature/KaneSeries Lynortis Reprise]]"

->"It is the ruin of this kind land," a woman said. "If the barons live at war, ploughfolk must eat roots."
-->-- ''Literature/TheBlackArrow''

->"It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would rather have stayed there in peace."
-->-- ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''

->''"The campaign season begins, and I will be away to Visserine in the morning, to take the city under siege. Skirmishes, sacks and burnings. March and counter-march. Famine and pestilence, naturally. Maim and murder, of course. All with the awful randomness of a stroke from the heavens. Collective punishment. Of everyone, for nothing. War, Shenkt, war. And to think I once dreamed of being an honourable man. Of doing good."''
-->-- '''General Ganmark''', ''Literature/BestServedCold''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
->''You weren't there. In the final days of the war. You never saw what was born. But if the Time Lock's broken then everything's coming through, not just the Daleks, but the Skaro Degredations. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast The Horde of Travesties]]. [[EldritchAbomination The Nightmare Child]]. [[ParadoxPerson The Could-Have-Been-King with his army of Meanwhiles and Never-weres]]. The war turned into '''hell!''' And that's what you opened. Right above the Earth. '''HELL IS DESCENDING!'''''
-->-- '''The Doctor''', ''Series/DoctorWho'', "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]"

->'''Bonnie:''' You don't understand. You will ''never'' understand.\\
'''The Doctor:''' I don't understand? Are you kidding? Me? Of course I understand. I mean, do you call this a war, this funny little thing? ''This'' is not a war. I fought in [[GreatOffscreenWar a bigger war than you will ever know]]! I did ''worse'' things than you could ever imagine! And when I close my eyes... I hear more screams than anyone could ''ever'' be able to count! And you know what you do with all that pain? Shall I tell you where you put it? You hold it ''tight'', til it burns your hand! And you say this: no one else will ''ever'' have to live like this! No one else will ever have to ''feel'' this pain! Not on my watch!
-->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E8TheZygonInversion The Zygon Inversion]]"

->"I was a soldier once. All my superiors thought I was brave. I wasn't. I mean, I never ran from a fight, but only because I was afraid all my friends would see I was afraid! That's all I was: a coward, who followed orders. No matter the orders. Burn that village? Fine, I'm your arsonist. Steal that farmer's crops? Good, I'm your thief. Kill those young lads so they won't take up arms against us... I'm your murderer. I remember once, a woman, screaming at us, calling us animals as we dragged her son from their hut. We weren't animals. [[InsultToRocks Animals are true to their nature, and we had betrayed ours]]. I cut that young boy's throat myself, as his mother screamed, and my friends held her back. That night, I felt shame. Shame was so heavy on me I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. All I could do was stare in that dark sky and listen to that mother screaming her sons's name. I've heard her screaming the rest of my life. Now, I know I can never bring that lad back, all I can do with the time I got left, is bring a little goodness into the world. It's all any of us can do, isn't? Never too late to stop robbing people, to stop killing people, to start helping people. Never too late to come back. And it's not about waiting for the gods to answer your prayers, it's not even about the gods. It's about you, learning you have to answer your prayers yourself."
-->-- The sermon of '''Septon Ray''', ''Series/GameOfThrones''

->''"Battle is not a simulation. It's blood and screams and funerals."''
-->-- '''Philippa Georgiou''', to '''Michael Burnham''', ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''

->''"Death, destruction, disease, horror. ''That's'' what war is all about, Anan. That's what makes it a thing to be avoided."''
-->-- '''Capt. James T. Kirk''', ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E23ATasteOfArmageddon A Taste of Armageddon]]"

->'''Hawkeye:''' War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse.\\
'''Father Mulcahy:''' How do you figure, Hawkeye?\\
'''Hawkeye:''' Easy, Father. Tell me, who goes to Hell?\\
'''Father Mulcahy:''' Sinners, I believe.\\
'''Hawkeye:''' Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell. War is chock full of them -- little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for some of the brass, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.
-->-- ''Series/{{Mash}}''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
->''A Hero of War,\\
Is that what they see?\\
Just medals and scars,\\
So damn proud of me.\\
And I brought home that flag,\\
Now it gathers dust,\\
But it's a flag that I love,\\
The only flag that I trust.''
-->-- '''Music/RiseAgainst''', "Hero of War"

->''Kill your enemies, my brothers dead around me\\
Wounds are hurting, death is creeping for me\\
Smoke is blinding, hearts are pounding, chaos soon ignites\\
The call is made, it's one for all! Will I meet the maker?\\
Over the top! Over the top! Right now it's killing time!\\
Over the top! Over the top! Right now it's killing time!\\
Over the top! Over the top! Right now it's killing time!\\
Over the top! Over the top! The only way out is to DIE!\\
God has spoken through his conscience\\
As I scream aim and fire the death toll grows higher''
-->-- '''Music/BulletForMyValentine''', "Scream Aim Fire"

->''How well I remember that terrible day,\\
When our blood stained the sand and the water,\\
And how in that hell that they called Suvla Bay,\\
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.\\
Johnny Turk, he was ready, he'd primed himself well,\\
He rained us with bullets, and showered us with shell,\\
And in five minutes flat, he blew us to hell,\\
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.\\
And the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"\\
As we all stopped to bury the slain,\\
We buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs,\\
Then it started all over again.''
-->-- '''Eric Bogle''', "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda"

->''The sun, how it shines on the green fields of France\\
There's a warm summer breeze, makes the red poppies dance\\
The trenches have vanished, long under the plow,\\
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now.\\
But here in this graveyard, it's still no-man's-land\\
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand\\
To Man's blind indifference to his fellow man,\\
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned!''
-->-- '''Eric Bogle''', "No Man's Land" (often known as "Green Fields of France" or "Willie [=McBride=]")

->''Where to begin? Let's start with the end\\
This black and white photo don't capture the skin\\
When metal is churned. And bodies are burned\\
Victory earned''
-->-- '''Carbon Leaf''', "The War Was In Color"

->''Through these fields of destruction\\
Baptisms of fire\\
I've witnessed your suffering\\
As the battle raged higher\\
And though they did hurt me so bad\\
In the fear and alarm\\
[[FireForgedFriends You did not desert me, my brothers in arms]]''
-->-- '''Music/DireStraits''', "Music/{{Brothers in Arms|Album}}"

->''As the train pulled in the station and the families gathered 'round\\
You could hear the first car echo with a loud triumphant sound\\
But the last car it was silent, they listened close but they couldn't hear\\
It was laden down with coffins, that didn't speak and couldn't cheer\\
[...]\\
Tell their wives that "they fought bravely" as they lay them in their graves...''
-->-- '''Music/DropkickMurphys''', "Broken Hymns"

->''Rivers flow with blood\\
There's nowhere left to hide\\
It's hard to comprehend\\
There's anyone left alive\\
\\
Sick of all the killing\\
And the reek of death\\
Will God tell me\\
What religion is to man''
-->-- '''Music/IronMaiden''', "Mother Of Mercy"

->''A score and seven soldiers, bloody, hacked and lame,\\
Returning to the village from their warriors' game,\\
Once more the drums are beating in the village square,\\
They tell of those who'll never be returning there...\\
The captain is dead and all the banners are bloody and torn,\\
Only these return, there'll be no more to come,\\
The pipes are keening for the soldiers dead and gone,\\
Behind them, mothers follow sadly weeping-oh.''
-->-- '''Andy Irvine''', "Blood and Gold"

->''I can't remember anything \\
Can't tell if this is true or dream \\
Deep down inside I feel to scream \\
This terrible silence stops me \\
[[AndIMustScream Now that the war is through with me \\
I'm waking up, I cannot see \\
That there is not much left of me \\
Nothing is real but pain now]] \\
Hold my breath as I wish for death \\
Oh please God, wake me''
-->-- '''Music/{{Metallica}}''', "One"

->''Over the deep and the deadly sweep\\
The fire and the bursting shell\\
While the very air is a mad despair\\
The throes of a living hell''
-->-- '''Music/PhilOchs''', "The Men Behind The Guns"

->''The war is a taste of hellfire\\
The war is the downfall of man\\
The war is the trade of the liar\\
The war again and again''
-->-- '''Music/RunningWild''', "The War"

->''You're dying in war, but you even can't live in peace.''
-->-- '''Music/RunningWild''', "War and Peace"

->''Thousands of machine guns\\
Kept on firing through the night\\
Mortars blazed and wrecked the scene\\
Guns in the fields that once were green\\
Still a deadlock at the frontline\\
Where the soldiers die in mud\\
Roads and houses since long gone\\
Still no glory has been won\\
[[MenAreTheExpendableGender Know that many men has suffered\\
Know that many men has died]]\\
Six miles of ground has been won\\
Half a million men are gone\\
And as the men crawled the general called\\
And the killing carried on\\
And on\\
What was the purpose of it all?\\
What's the price of a mile?\\
[[MillionMookMarch Thousands of feet march to the beat, it's an army on the march]]\\
Long way from home, [[AMillionIsAStatistic paying the price in young men's lives]]\\
[[PoorCommunicationKills Thousands of feet march to the beat, it's an army in despair]]\\
[[GeoEffects Knee-deep in mud]], [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI stuck in the trench with no way out]]\\
[...]\\
Young men are dying!\\
They pay the price!\\
O how they suffer!\\
So tell me, What is [[TitleDrop the price of a mile?]]''
-->-- '''Music/{{Sabaton}}''', "The Price Of A Mile"

->''Has man gone insane?\\
A few will remain\\
Who'll find a way\\
To live one more day\\
Through decades of war\\
It spreads like disease\\
There's no sign of peace\\
Religion and greed\\
Cause millions to bleed\\
[[UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar Three decades of war]]''
-->-- '''Music/{{Sabaton}}''', "A Lifetime Of War"

->''Gallipoli\\
Left their letters in the sand\\
Such waste of life\\
Gallipoli\\
Dreams of freedom turned to dust\\\
How many wasted lives?\\
How many dreams did fade away?\\
Broken promises\\
They won't be coming home''
-->--'''Music/{{Sabaton}}''', Cliffs of Gallipoli

->''The sky is raining fire, we dance between the bombs\\
The curtain falls tonight over the ruins and tombs\\
We dance to celebrate our history and fate\\
We're shining to exist, injustice and hatred will make us fall in the night''
-->--'''Music/{{Myrath}}''', "Dance"

->''War!\\
HUNH!\\
Good God, y'all!\\
What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!''
-->-- '''Edwin Starr''', "War"

->''They were crying when their sons left\\
All young men must go\\
He's come so far to find the truth\\
He's never going home''
-->-- '''Music/SystemOfADown''', "Soldier Side"

->''End this war... bring them homes... bring them back... alive\\
Take control... force the end... overwhelm them... with might\\
The onslaught... the carnage... will scar them... for life\\
Their innocence... their youth... was lost... forever''
-->-- '''Music/{{Immolation}}''', "A Thunderous Consequence"

->''Wi' yer drums 'n' guns, and guns 'n' drums, the enemy nearly slew ye\\
[[BodyHorror Oh, darlin', dear, ye look so queer,]] Johnny, I hardly knew ye...''
-->-- "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye," traditional Irish folk song


->''And when the battle is over, what about the pain\\
Of knowing that I'll never see my little boy again\\
His duty has been done at last, despite my growing fears\\
That knowing as a parent, I've wasted all these years\\
How could they do this?\\
How could they kill my son?''
-->-- '''Legend''', "Song for a Soldier"

->''Look at your young men fighting\\
Look at your women crying\\
Look at your young men dying\\
The way they've always done before\\\
Look at the hate we're breeding\\
Look at the fear we're feeding\\
Look at the lives we're leading\\
The way we've always done before\\\
My hands are tied\\
The billions shift from side to side\\
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride\\
For the love of God and our human rights\\
And all these things are swept aside\\
By bloody hands time can't deny\\
And are washed away by your genocide\\
[[WrittenByTheWinners And history hides the lies of our civil wars.]]''
-->-- '''Music/GunsNRoses''', "Civil War"

->''Ain't found a way to kill me yet\\
Eyes burn with stinging swear\\
Seems every path leads me to nowhere\\
Wife and kids and household pet\\
Army green was no safe bet\\
The bullet screamed to me from somewhere\\\
Walking tall, machinegun man\\
They spit on me in my homeland\\
Gloria send me pictures of my boy\\
Got my pills 'gainst mosquito death\\
My buddy's breathing his dying breath\\
Oh God please won't you help me make it through?''
-->-- '''Music/AliceInChains''', "Rooster"

->''March, the grave will find you soon\\
One million voices strong, the angry voice of doom\\
March, you colonizing fools\\
The endless call of war, your life is just the fuel''
-->-- '''The Shodown''', "The Graveyard of Empires"

->''Where dead men lies I'm paralyzed\\
My brother's eyes are gone\\
And he shall be buried here\\
Nameless marks his grave\\
Mother home, get a telegram\\
And shed a tear of grief\\
Mud and blood in a foreign land\\
Trying to understand\\\
Where is this greatness I've been told?\\
This is the lies that we've been sold\\
Is this a worthy sacrifice?''
-->-- '''{{Music/Sabaton}}''', "[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI Great War]]"

->''And as the end draws near\\
November dawn\\
With losses so severe\\
Cease fire, their forces withdrawn\\\
November 11th, settling the score\\
From 15 to 20 million\\
Almost half of the dead civilian\\
A new world will dawn from empires fallen\\
The end of the war to end war''
-->-- '''{{Music/Sabaton}} ''', "The End of the War to End All Wars"

->''"There are children standing here, arms outstretched into the sky\\
Tears drying on their face\\
He has been here\\
Brothers lie in shallow graves, fathers lost without a trace\\
A nation blind to their disgrace\\
Since he's been here\\
And I see no bravery\\
No bravery in your eyes anymore, only sadness\\
[...]\\
Houses burnt beyond repair, the smell of death is in the air\\
A woman weeping in despair says:\\
He has been here\\
Tracer lighting up the sky, it's another family's turn to die\\
A child afraid to even cry out says:\\
He has been here\\
[...]\\
There are children standing here, arms outstretched into the sky\\
But no one asks the question why he has been here\\
Old men kneel to accept their fate, wives and daughters cut and raped\\
A generation drenched in hate says:\\
He has been here"''
-->-- '''Music/JamesBlunt''', "No Bravery"

->''And the ANZAC legends didn't mention mud and blood and tears.\\
And the stories that my father told me never seemed quite real.\\
I caught some pieces in my back that I didn't even feel.\\
God help me, I was only 19.''
-->-- '''Redgum''', "I Was Only 19"

->''Big fucking ditches in the middle of the road\\
You pay a hundred dollars just for filling in the hole\\
Listen to the general every goddamn word\\
How many ways can you polish up a turd?!''
-->-- '''Music/TomWaits''', "Hell Broke Luce"

->''Empires built upon the bones of those who stood beside us\\
The sun has set eternally into the dark\\
And we have seen the fields of war steal the lives of sons and brothers\\
The iron heart of glory beats a hollow dirge\\
The gods of battle rise and fall, but the thirst for blood lives on\\
The Wolves of Winter rise and howl for honor's debt\\
The sands forever greedily consume the blood of friends and fathers\\
The gates of Hood will open wide with dreams of death.''
-->-- '''Caladan Brood''', "[[Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen Echoes of Battle]]"

->''Time to fight\\
Have to kill\\
Havin' to see blood spill\\
So this is what it's all about\\
It's not John Wayne in a movie\\
There are no parades for these heroes\\
And all I can line up are the widows\\
War is real\\
Death is made of steel\\
I don't want to see\\
I cannot believe it''
-->-- '''{{Music/Minutemen}}''', "No Parade"

->''This pair of sweet young lovers\\
Shot and fallen side by side on this day\\
Leaving all these ridiculous earthly stances and views behind together finally\\
I seem to hear the wind singing this song again:\\
Love, building on what you believe\\
Be it sweet or bitter on the road, they held on to each other\\
Love, is never meant to be separated by religions\\
Has no place for ethnic conflicts\\
Always would rather love you from life until death''
-->-- '''Sammi Cheng''', "[[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo]]" (original song in Cantonese [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6-G12LKXRw here]])

->''"Ash in the snow, falling so slow\\
Like fragile broken hearts with no place to go\\
Little soldier boy, taken from home\\
Forced to fight a war that was not his own\\
Little soldier boy, cold and alone\\
Brave soldier boy, never made it home"''
-->--'''Rainaeiry''', "[[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Leaves from the Vine]]"

->''I gazed around and saw the slain who knew no glory, only pain;\\
How different now my triumph seemed as dying soldiers screamed.\\\
What glory in the bow or blade? What honor can through death be made\\
When children are the sacrifice and innocence the price?\\\
Away I ran, and to this day, my husband works, my children play;\\
I thirst no longer for the fight, nor envy squire nor knight.\\\
My son will never know the sword, my girl for sweetness find reward,\\
My husband’s hands will know the stain of earth, and not the slain.\\\
And I will reap what I will sow, and take my joy when green things grow\\
Let others who hold life too cheap their so-called glory reap.''
-->--"[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2dEaD8-xyA Glory Reaped]]", Creator/SamanthaMoore
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Poetry]]
->''A wise hero must realize\\
how terrible it will be,\\
when all the wealth of this world\\
lies wasted,\\
as now in various places\\
throughout this world\\
walls stand,\\
blown by the wind,\\
covered with frost,\\
storm-swept the buildings.\\
The halls decay,\\
their lords lie\\
deprived of joy,\\
the whole troop has fallen,\\
the proud ones, by the wall.''
-->The Wanderer, Trans to Modern English (Sean Miller).

->''I have eaten your bread and salt.\\
I have drunk your water and wine.\\
The deaths ye died I have watched beside,\\
And the lives ye led were mine.\\\
Was there aught that I did not share\\
In vigil or toil or ease,\\
One joy or woe that I did not know, \\
Dear hearts across the seas?\\\
I have written the tale of our life\\
For a sheltered people's mirth, \\
In jesting guise - but ye are wise,\\
And ye know what the jest is worth.''
-->-- '''Creator/RudyardKipling''', "Prelude"

->''If in some smothering dreams you too could pace\\
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,\\
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,\\
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;\\
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood\\
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,\\
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud\\
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,–\\
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest\\
To children ardent for some desperate glory,\\
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est\\
Pro patria mori.''[[note]]Latin:"It is sweet and proper to die for one's country"[[/note]]
-->-- '''Wilfred Owen''', "Dulce Et Decorum Est"

->''Squire nagged and bullied till I went to fight,\\
(Under Lord Derby's scheme). I died in hell -\\
(They called it Passchendaele). My wound was slight,\\
And I was hobbling back; and then a shell\\
Burst slick upon the duckboards: so I fell\\
Into the bottomless mud, and lost the light.''
-->-- '''Creator/SiegfriedSassoon''', "Memorial Tablet"

->''And when he gets to heaven\\
to St. Peter he will tell:\\
"One more marine reporting, sir!\\
I've served my time in hell!"''
-->-- "The Soldier's Poem"

->First came the Greycoats to eat all my swine,\\
Next came the Bluecoats to make my sons fight,\\
Next came the Greencoats to make my wife whore,\\
Next came the Browncoats to burn down my home.\\
I have naught but my life, now come the Blackcoats to rob me of that.
-->--Anonymous poem from the Thirty Years War

->Vowed to wipe out the [[GrimUpNorth Xiongnu]] regardless of cost\\
Five thousand elites lost in the barbarian dust\\
Have pity on the white skeletons on the Wuding River bank\\
For they are now only in the dreams of young women back home.
-->--'''Chen Tao''', "[[https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E9%9A%B4%E8%A5%BF%E8%A1%8C%E5%9B%9B%E9%A6%96 Journey to Longxi]]" (from the [[OlderThanPrint 9th century]])
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
->Hey! ...War is dumb.
-->-- '''Wrestling/SgtSlaughter''', [[http://5sf.at/75 Motivational Speaker]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
->"Oh that is typical. They're always firing shells at us. I hate this."\\
"It's horrible here -- really horrible."\\
"I know it is."\\
"It's muddy and smelly and just really dangerous. I hate the way everyone gets killed."
-->-- ''[[Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook That Mitchell and Webb Sound]]''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
->Firestorms. Mass eviscerations. Assaults from [[OurGargoylesRock live-stone monsters]]. [[GenuineHumanHide Curtains made from living skin]]. Consors and ghouls locked in mass warfare. Castles blown to shards. Towns burned, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent their people drained of blood]]. Dragons set loose in the Carpathian hills. Innards ripped magically from within living skin. And torture - so much torture that [[EvenEvilHasStandards even our medieval cousins were horrified]]. In later years, Hermetic mages would refer to the First ''Massassa'' war as our Vietnam. No side truly won, both were devastated, and neither would ever be the same. This March raged for [[ForeverWar over a century]]. When we finally limped off [[BlatantLies claiming victory]], our Order stood at less than 100 Awakened members combined. [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade The Tremere]], we hoped, had suffered similar losses. [[AllForNothing But vampires breed more quickly than mages Awaken]]...
-->--''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension - Tradition Book: Order Of Hermes (Revised)''

->To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.
-->--''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''

->What tumbles from the sky in war-torn lands, killing brothers, sisters, friends, parents? What pounds upon the door in the middle of the night, howling orders or kicking it to splinters, dragging Daddy off to [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace the Scream Hotel]]? What buzzes in the corner like an insect full of shrapnel and a voice like a thousand thunders? The children of Belfast, of Sarajevo, of Somalia and East L.A. know the monster's name. It is War.
->War makes the air [[DeadlyGas too thick to breathe]], makes fathers choke on their own blood while mothers cower under soldiers' blows. War makes the night explode with screams and makes the market dance into flying bits of glass and bodies. War makes your belly howl and grinds your fingertips to bloody shreds as tanks rumble by. Worst of all, War grows inside you, scraping your soul until one day you feed the War with broken bodies. This is perhaps the saddest, meanest spirit in the Tellurian - the [[LivingDream child's dream of War]] in all its glory
->In the [[DreamLand Land of Nod]], the War descends from above, like a great black cloud settling down upon the landscape. More a storm than a monster, it ravages an area, then move on. The War begins and as a darkening, then dry winds and the distant sounds of sirens fill the air. In moments, the area swarms with soldiers. A red haze builds from the ground up, a bloody fog that clings to the skin and turns the stomach. Horror begin, pain without measure, without substance, without reason. Soon enough, it subsides. Subsides into the stillness of death, and the promise of more to come.
-->--''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension - The Book Of Worlds''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
->There's no mercy in war. People live and people die - that's all there is to it.
-->-- '''Solo Wing Pixy''', ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar''

->I find no solace in the purpose behind of all this senseless violence that surrounds me. Young men die at a rate unheard of in centuries of warfare. Shelling. Machine guns. Mustard gas. Rip, pierce, and burn their flesh. Men soak gauze in their own urine to stop the [[DeadlyGas insidious gas]]. The [[CrisisPointHospital hospital cannot cope]] with the torrent of wounded...
-->-- '''Peter Jacob''', ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''

->War...\\
[[WarWasBeginning War never changes]].\\
The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower.
->But war never changes.\\

->In the 21st century, war was still waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: Petroleum and Uranium. For these resources, China would invade Alaska, the US would annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarreling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.\\

->In 2077, the storm of world war had come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders. And from the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilization would struggle to arise.\\

->A few were able to reach the relative safety of the large underground vaults. Your family was part of that group that entered Vault Thirteen. Imprisoned safely behind the large Vault door, under a mountain of stone, a generation has lived without knowledge of the outside world.\\
Life in the Vault is about to change.
-->-- ''[[VideoGame/Fallout1 Fallout]]''

->''[[DeathOfAChild Petals far too young, blown away by the black winds\\
Stranded on the shores of a sea of silence]]\\
For how much longer will we have to wait for the storms to pass?''
-->-- '''"Elegy of Winds"''', ''VideoGame/FugaMelodiesOfSteel''

->[[CaptainsLog Captain's report]]-February 4th, 2531.\\
Five years, five long years. That's how long it took us to get Harvest back. At first, it was going well. Then setback after setback...loss after loss...made what was going to be a quick and decisive win...into five years of hell... Of course, that's all Harvest is today...it's hell down there... But now it's ours again.
-->-- '''Captain James Cutter''', ''VideoGame/HaloWars''

->War is an atrocity committed in the name of survival. A lesson I wish I had never learned.
-->-- '''Javik''', Prothean Avatar of Vengeance, ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''

->I was a fool. I wanted to be a soldier. But war is ugly... There's nothing glamorous about it.
-->-- '''Meryl Silverburgh''', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''

->War has changed. It's no longer about nations, ideologies, or ethnicity. It's an endless series of proxy battles, fought by mercenaries and machines. War - and its consumption of life - has become a well-oiled machine. War has changed. ID-tagged soldiers carry ID-tagged weapons, use ID-tagged gear. Nanomachines inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control, information control, emotion control, battlefield control. Everything is monitored and kept under control. War has changed. The age of deterrence has become the age of control, all in the name of averting catastrophe from weapons of mass destruction, and he who controls the battlefield, controls history. War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war becomes routine.
-->-- '''Solid (Old) Snake''', ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''

->War is [[PyrrhicVictory never really won]] by anyone who participates in it. War simply rearranges the way things were and steals the promise of tomorrow from each side. To succeed at war you have to [[ThesehandsHaveKilled lose a part of your humanity]]. After you win enough wars, [[EmptyShell you have no humanity left]] because you lost a piece of it each time you killed someone.
-->-- '''Major Leon James''', Kell Hounds, ''VideoGame/MechWarrior 2''

->Five years ago, I lost 30,000 men in the blink of an eye, and the world just fucking watched. Tomorrow there will be no shortage of volunteers, no shortage of patriots. I know you understand.
-->-- '''General Shepherd''', ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2''

->In a recent battle '''[[PlayerCharacter Player X]]''' completely destroyed '''[[PlayerCharacter Player Y's]]''' ship. The moment '''Player Y''' tried to flee he was vaporized by '''Player X's''' shots.\\
WarIsHell.
-->-- '''GNN''', ''{{VideoGame/Pardus}}''

->"Give me a projection on [[SemperFi Marine]] casualties."\\
"1,000 to 2,500, sir."\\
"Total?"\\
"No, sir. Per week."
-->-- ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}''

->War is not a joke. Find someone else to bother!
-->-- '''[[Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms Guan]] [[WarGod Yu]]''' [[NoSenseOfHumor when asked to "joke,"]] ''VideoGame/{{Smite}}''

->Make no mistake. War is coming. [[WarIsGlorious With all its glory.]] [[WarIsHell And with all its horror.]]
-->-- '''Arcturus Mengsk''', ''VideoGame/StarcraftII''

->I hear trench warfare is as bad as it gets. Cowering in a dirty hole, hoping a bombardment doesn't hit too close, or penned in with dozens of others desperately fighting with nowhere to go...
-->--'''Mako's comment on seeing the Republic trenches on Balmorra''', ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic''

->My first day as a member of the 501st... It was hot, it was sandy, chaotic. Nothing at all like the simulations on Kamino. Of course that's pretty much the way it was for all of us, wasn't it? All that breeding, all those years of training... it doesn't really prepare you for the all the screaming or the blood, does it? Frankly I'm still amazed we ever made it through the first hour, nevermind the first day.
-->--'''501st Legion Clone Trooper Diary''', ''VideoGame/StarWarsBattlefrontII''

-> What follows is frontline combat. [[WhamLine You are not expected to survive.]]
-->-- ''VideoGame/Battlefield1''

->''None of this is good, Vector. That's why it's called "war".''
-->-- '''Knuckles''', ''Videogame/SonicForces''

->"[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI I have stood knee deep in mud and bone, and filled my lungs with mustard gas.]] [[AMillionIsAStatistic I have seen two brothers fall.]] I have lain with [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict holy wars]] and copulated with the [[AtomicHate autumnal fallout]]. [[ThoseWackyNazis I have dug trenches for the refugees]]; [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheUSSR I have murdered dissidents where the ground never thaws]], [[UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution and starved the masses into faith]]. [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki A child's shadow burnt into the brickwork.]] [[UsefulNotes/{{Cambodia}} A house of skulls in the jungle.]] The innocent, the ''innocent'', Mandus, [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust trod and bled and gassed and starved and beaten and murdered and enslaved]]. [[HumansAreBastards This is your coming century!]] They will eat them Mandus! They will make pigs of ''you all!'' And they will bury their snouts into your ribs and they will ''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis eat. your. hearts!]]''
-->'''-- ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTQ3lZPOJ7Y The Engineer]]'''


-> Aim, shoot, kill, reload. The cycle repeats to no end. I cared less and less that the shots were aimed at other living beings...\\
...I have to stop seeing them [[note]] the Germans [[/note]] as people. Wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise...
-->-- '''Piotr Kowalski''', ''VideoGame/LandOfWarTheBeginning''

->"War without rule or restraint isn't a pretty sight. Even if you win, you'll never be the same again."
-->-- '''Gunmaster Duncan''' on total war, ''VideoGame/LegacyOfAThousandSuns''

->"Hungry for more, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the war]] was not yet over. Its appetite was... infinite."
-->--''VideoGame/ValiantHearts''

->''"[[NintendoHard Brutally]] difficult and entirely unforgiving."''
-->-- [[HarderThanHard Realistic difficulty]] in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII''

->''"Great leaders draw their power from [[{{Determinator}} conviction]]. Their armies, however, march forward only under the power of Energon. This terrible war will reach its end. Not because all have finally become one. But simply, I fear, because all have become ''[[EverybodysDeadDave none]]''."''
-->-- '''[[TheMedic Ratchet]]''', ''VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron''

->''"Do you feel like a hero yet?"''
-->-- '''Colonel John Konrad''', ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''

->''"Jeremy. Someday, people will tell you [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes about your father.]] For that, I'm sorry. I love you."''
-->-- '''Colonel John Konrad''' in a letter to his son, ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''

->''"The US military does not condone the killing of unarmed combatants. But this isn't real, so why should you care?"''
-->--'''[[PlayerPunch Loading Screen]]''', ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine''

-> ''The insanity of war, it's like a dust storm. You can be the person caught in it, resisting, holding onto your ideals until it breaks you down, saps your strength and strips your flesh from your bones.\\
\\
War has consumed many this way.\\
\\
You can be that person, [[FaceHeelTurn or you can be the dust.]]''
-->-- '''Startup Screen''', ''VideoGame/Receiver2''

->'''Katherine Bishop''': ''Now, there's just one last question I'd like to ask you. It's subjective, so, take your time''\\
'''Nathan [=MacDade=]''': ''Sure - fire away''\\
'''Katherine Bishop''': ''In your opinion, who's most to blame for all the suffering in Oreokastro? [[TheAlliance NATO]]? [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified The guerrillas]]? [[TheEmpire CSAT]]? [[ArmiesAreEvil The Altis Armed Forces]]? Or, I don't know, something else?''\\
'''Nathan [=MacDade=]''': ''I'd have to say - y'know I'm not sure. I mean, I don't think it's quite so [[BlackAndWhiteMorality 'black and white']]. It's more... [[BlackAndGrayMorality black and grey]]. Hell, [[GreyAndGrayMorality grey and grey]], y'know? No one side can be held accountable for the bloodshed here. No one action got us where we are now. I dunno. What can we do? Just... double-down on our efforts. Heal the wounds... And the folks here in Oreokastro? They're the ones that've suffered. This is the reality. This is war.''
-->-- ''[[VideoGame/{{ARMA}} ArmA 3: Remnants of War]]''

->''"You remember, during [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars the war]]... we did some bad things and bad things happened to us. War is where the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other."''
-->-- '''Niko Bellic''', ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
-> Thrown abruptly into a rain-soaked hell without adequate food. Unable to imagine what tomorrow will bring, your physical and emotional strength are slowly whittled down - The ones wobbling on their feet have a week. The ones sitting, five days. The ones lying down, three. The ones that can't speak, two. And the ones that can't blink will be dead before the sun sets. At some point, you've lost the energy to dig graves for your companions. You sleep next to the rotting corpses of your friend.
-> Hell on earth.
-->-- '''Yuuji''', ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
->'''Radio:''' In other news, Russia has begun an invasion of Ukraine, saying it plans to "de-Nazify" the country. NATO allies have begun a series of sanctions against Russia.\\
'''Russian neighbor:''' But… but why?\\
'''Ukrainian neighbor:''' I dunno. Some complicated geopolitical bulls**t that's going to ruin your life ''and'' mine.\\
'''Russian neighbor:''' Well, I know I'm supposed to hate you now, but… take care.\\
'''Ukrainian neighbor:''' And I know I'm supposed to blame you for what your government is doing, but… thanks.
-->-- ''WebAnimation/MrSpherical''

->Here's how trench warfare works: two opposing lines of trenches with no man's land in between. One side would pummel the other with hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, sometimes for days at a time. This had a huge psychological effect on the soldiers, leaving many shell-shocked. Then, the attacking troops would leave their trenches and rush across no man's land, a muddy, wet mess of shell craters and barbed wire. The defending trench would unleash machine-gun fire on the attackers, inflicting thousands of casualties. The attackers would send wave after wave until either they gave up or the opposing trench was finally overrun. There would be months of fighting and the deaths of thousands in order to gain a few meters or kilometers of land.\\
Living in the trenches was hard work, too. Corpses, mud that could swallow you whole, pools of poisonous water, rats, disease, the smell... It's insane that millions of soldiers put up with these conditions, and commanders ordered them to do so for years.
-->--- '''{{WebAnimation/Oversimplified}}''', ''UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne (Part 1)''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
->This isn't the dungeon. In a war, people on the winning side still die. You might want to consider taking it somewhat seriously.
-->-- '''O-Chul''', ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick''

->'''Dejah:''' This war really '''can't''' end for us, can it?\\
'''Miranda:''' I invite you to name any war that '''has''' "ended well", Dejah.
-->-- ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan''
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
->It was just after dawn on the twentieth day, when Karl [[DrivenToSuicide tore out his own throat]] and [[ImmortalityHurts continued to rant and rave]], that Lars' nerve finally broke. Whatever evils nature hid in the woods, they could not match what he had seen and heard in the past weeks on the battlefield. Soldiers screaming as they were [[BodyHorror torn apart by invisible hands]]. The howling of men blown in half by an artillery volley, howling that never ceased. He had to get out. He would run all the way back to Bavaria, if necessary. Just away.
-->-- "[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/a-burial-in-the-woods A Burial in the Woods]]," ''Website/SCPFoundation''

->the conflicted supersoldier stares over the horizon as he smokes a cigarette. "war is the most fucked up thing ever." he takes a sip of beer
-->-- Blog/{{Dril}}
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
->[[Film/{{Platoon}} The first casualty of war is innocence]].\\
[[TheseHandsHaveKilled The second is humanity]].\\
[[ToBeLawfulOrGood The third is morality]].\\
[[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman The fourth is human potential]].\\
[[SanitySlippage The fifth is sanity]].\\
[[ShellShockedVeteran The sixth is sleep]].\\
[[NightmareFuel The seventh is life]].
-->-- A WebSite/YouTube comment on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34mNg12vg6Q this video]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
->War is stupid.
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}''

->No such thing as a good war, kiddo.
-->-- '''Greg Universe''', ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''

->'''Optimus:''' Let's just say I have a much better appreciation for what you went through [[GreatOffscreenWar back in the day]] and why you don't wanna remember it.\\
'''Ratchet:''' It's not that I don't want to remember. I ''have'' to remember... for those who can't.
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated''

->'''Mikey:''' When will you ever learn?! War is not a game! War is not a game!\\
'''Other Kids:''' [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Really? I thought it was a game. A really fun game.]]
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}''

-> '''[[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Ma'ah]]:''' You fought [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine the Dominion]]? Ah, the Shapeshifters sent many warriors to [[WarriorHeaven Sto'vo'kor]]. I wish I could've seen it.
-> '''Mariner:''' ''No'', you do not! There was no honor, just massacres...
-> '''Ma'ah:''' But! In the end, you were victorious!
-> '''Mariner:''' Starfleet is supposed to be about puzzling together the mysteries of life, not fighting ''wars!'' I don't wanna be a general! I don't wanna send my friends off to die!
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'', "The Inner Fight"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
->''In peace, sons bury their fathers. [[OutlivingOnesOffspring In war, fathers bury their sons]].''
-->-- '''Herodotus'''

-> "The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
-->-- '''General Douglas [=MacArthur=]'''

->There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln'''

->Now arms, however beautiful, are [[EvilWeapon instruments of evil omen, hateful, it may be said, to all creatures]]. Therefore they who have the Tao do not like to employ them.\\
The superior man ordinarily considers the left hand the most honourable place, but in time of war the right hand. Those sharp weapons are instruments of evil omen, and not the instruments of the superior man; he uses them only on the compulsion of necessity. Calm and repose are what he prizes; victory (by force of arms) is to him undesirable. To consider this desirable would be to delight in the slaughter of men; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom.\\
On occasions of festivity to be on the left hand is the prized position; on occasions of mourning, the right hand. The second in command of the army has his place on the left; the general commanding in chief has his on the right; his place, that is, is assigned to him as in the rites of mourning. He who has killed multitudes of men should [[TearsOfRemorse weep for them with the bitterest grief]]; and the victor in battle has his place (rightly) according to those rites.
-->-- '''Creator/{{Laozi}}'''

->"You will often be afraid when you see your enemies [[FoeTossingCharge coming towards you with lowered lances to run you through and with drawn swords to cut you down]]. [[RainOfArrows Bolts and arrows come at you]] and you do not know how best to protect yourself. You see people killing each other, fleeing, dying and being taken prisoner and you see the bodies of your dead friends lying before you. But your horse is not dead, and by its vigorous speed [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere you can escape in dishonour]]. But if you stay, [[TheAntiNihilist you will win eternal honour]]. [[MartyrdomCulture Is he not a great martyr, who puts himself to such work]]?"
-->--'''Geoffroi de Charny''', 14th-century French KnightInShiningArmor

->[[WarIsGlorious Glory]] is just memory putting a brave face on horror.
-->-- Anonymous veteran of UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars

->Nothing but a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
-->-- '''[[UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington]]'''

->Since my youth I have wielded arms for the fatherland and grew grey therin; I have seen death in his most terrible form and still see him before my eyes daily; I have seen hovels smoke and their inhabitants leave naked and bare, and I could not help. Such are the doings and ragings of men in their passionate state. But the better man yearns to leave that wild press, and I bless the hour when I can remove myself with good, true brothers to those higher regions where a clear, bright light shines upon us. Holy therefore is freemasonry to me, to her I shall adhere unto death, and every brother shall be dear and worthy to my heart.
-->-- '''General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher''', speech delivered at the lodge in Bautzen, 18 September 1813

->You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it … Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth — right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail.
-->-- '''William Tecumseh Sherman''', speaking to a friend that was an eager secessionist and quite accurately describing the narrative of the {{UsefulNotes/American Civil War}} to come.

->Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.
-->-- '''William Tecumseh Sherman'''

->Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war.
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/OttoVonBismarck'''

->''I shall never forget the overwhelming impression made on me by the mountaineers in Novorossiisk Bay, where about seventeen thousand of them were gathered on the shore. The late, inclement and cold time of the year, the almost complete absence of means of subsistence and the epidemic of typhus and smallpox raging among them made their situation desperate. And indeed, whose heart would be touched on seeing, for example, the already stiff corpse of a young Circassian woman lying in rags on the damp ground under the open sky with two infants, one struggling in his death-throes while the other sought to assuage his hunger at his dead mother's breast? And I saw not a few such scenes.''
-->--'''Adolph Petrovich Berzhe''' (1863)

->''On the road our eyes were met with a staggering image: corpses of women, children, elderly persons, torn to pieces and half- eaten by dogs; deportees emaciated by hunger and disease, almost too weak to move their legs, collapsing from exhaustion and becoming prey to dogs while still alive.''
-->--'''Ivan Drozdov''' (May 1864)

->O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle - be Thou near them! With them - in spirit - we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it - for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
-->-- '''Creator/MarkTwain''', [[SarcasmMode "The War Prayer"]]

->"My memories of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI the last war]] haunted my dreams for years. Military service, to be plain, includes the threat of every ''temporal'' evil; pain and death which is what we fear from sickness; isolation from those we love which is what we fear from exile; toil under arbitrary masters, injustice, humiliation which is what we fear from slavery; hunger, thirst and exposure which is what we fear from poverty. I'm not a pacifist. If it's got to be then it's got to be. But the flesh is weak and selfish and [[FateWorseThanDeath I think death would be much better than to live through another war.]]"
-->--'''Creator/CSLewis''', letter to Bede Griffiths, 1939

-> Never think that war, [[NecessarilyEvil no matter how necessary, nor how justified]], is not a crime.
-->-- '''Creator/ErnestHemingway'''

-> [[HeelRealization We were all Orcs in the Great War.]]
-->-- Attributed to '''Creator/JRRTolkien'''

->I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen two hundred limping exhausted men come out of line-the survivors of a regiment of one thousand that went forward forty-eight hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt'''

->''"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."''
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower''', speech before the Canadian Club, January 10th, 1946

->''"I know not with what weapons WorldWarIII will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."''
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein'''

->As far as casualties were concerned I think there were more casualties in the first attack on Tokyo with incendiaries than there were with the first use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The fact that it's done instantaneously, maybe that's more humane than incendiary attacks, if you can call any war act humane. I don't, particularly, so to me there wasn't much difference. [[CombatPragmatist A weapon is a weapon and it really doesn't make much difference how you kill a man]]. If you have to kill him, well, [[DirtyBusiness that's the evil to start with and how you do it becomes pretty secondary]]. I think your choice should be which weapon is the most efficient and most likely to get the whole mess over with as early as possible.
-->-- '''Curtis "[[TheButcher Bombs Away]]" [=LeMay=]''', ''The World at War''

->"A true revolution of values will lay a hand on the world order and say of war 'this way of settling differences is not just'. This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nations homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples most normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love"
-->--'''UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr''', ''Beyond Vietnam'' speech, 1967

->Every senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood. Every senator here is partly responsible for that human wreckage at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval and all across our land - young men [[AndIMustScream without legs, or arms, or genitals, or faces or hopes]].\\\
There are not very many of these blasted and broken boys who think this war is a glorious adventure. Do not talk to them about [[ShellShockedVeteran bugging out]], or national honor or courage. It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]], because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes. And if we do not end this damnable war those young men will some day curse us for our pitiful willingness to let the Executive carry the burden that the Constitution places on us.
-->-- '''George [=McGovern=]''', speech in the Senate, 1970

->War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
-->-- '''UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter''', Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 2002

->In war, there are no unwounded soldiers.
-->-- '''Jose Narosky'''

->[[DesignatedVillain Reason dictates we should hate this man.]] But it's hard to get angry at Josephus. What, after all, did he do? [[JerkAss A few soldiers were tricked into suicide. Some demoralizing claptrap was shouted at a beleaguered army. A wife was distressed. (She survived, incidentally, and Josephus divorced her for a Roman heiress.) And sundry other crimes were committed]], all of which pale by comparison to what [[DesignatedHero the good men]] did. For it was the loyal, the idealistic and the brave who did the real damage. [[KnightTemplar The devout and patriotic leaders of Jerusalem sacrificed tens of thousands of lives to the cause of freedom. Vespasian and Titus sacrificed tens of thousands more to the cause of civil order.]] Even Agrippa II, the Roman client king of Judea who did all he could to prevent the war, ended by supervising the destruction of half a dozen of his cities and the sale of their inhabitants into slavery. How much better for everyone if all the principal figures of the region had been [[DirtyCoward slithering filth]] like Josephus.
-->-- '''P.J. O'Rourke''', "The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Middle East Policy Expert" from ''Give War A Chance''

->War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
-->-- '''Creator/BertrandRussell'''

->Wars don't end happily. Not ever.
-->-- '''Creator/KAApplegate'''

->Only the dead have seen the end of war.
-->-- '''George Santayana''', Soliloquy #25, "Tipperary" [[note]](also attributed [[BeamMeUpScotty falsely]] to Creator/{{Plato}})[[/note]]

->You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.
-->-- A bumper sticker

->"Is there literally nothing that can shame you? Is there no act of barbarism against civilians, no [[WouldHurtAChild execution of a child]], that gets under your skin? That just creeps you out a little bit? [[TheUnfettered Is there nothing you will not lie about or justify?]]"
-->--'''Samantha Power''', United States Ambassador to the United Nations, on the Syrian government and its allies' actions in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aleppo_(2012–2016) Battle of Aleppo]]

->"War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality."
-->-- '''John [=McCain=]''', speech to the American Red Cross, 1999

->Those who celebrate war [[ArmchairMilitary never participate in it]]. Those who participate in war [[ShellShockedVeteran never celebrate it]].
-->-- '''Anonymous'''

->Men die of mud as they die from bullets, but more horribly.\\
Mud swallows a man and - what is worse - his soul.\\
Mud hides the stripes of rank. There are only poor suffering beasts.\\
Hell is not fire, that would not be the ultimate suffering. Hell is mud!
-->--'''Excerpts from a French soldier's writing in the March 26, 1917 edition of the trench newspaper ''Le Bochofage'''''

->"It is good that war is so terrible, else we should grow too fond of it."
-->-- '''Robert E. Lee'''

->What the world is seeing now in Afghanistan is what the world chose to ignore for far too long. War is hell. It always has been. And it always will be. Its currency is death, dismemberment, desperation, and fear. It doesn’t end in parades. It ends in caskets.
-->-- '''Creator/DanRather''', [[https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1430921297941307395 reflecting on]] UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror

->There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, ambassador.
-->-- '''Sergiy Kyslytsya''', Ukrainian representative to the UN, towards his Russian counterpart, Vasily Nebenzya, over the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine 2022 invasion]]

->''"As there was no compulsion towards a conflict which, in despite of the apparent bitterness of parties, took so long to engage and needed so much assiduous blowing to fan the flame, so no right was vindicated by its ragged end. The war solved no problem. Its effects, both immediate and indirect, were either negative or disastrous. Morally subversive, economically destructive, socially degrading, confused in its causes, devious in its course, futile in its result, it is the outstanding example in European history of meaningless conflict. The overwhelming majority in Europe, the overwhelming majority in Germany, wanted no war; powerless and voiceless, there was no need even to persuade them that they did. The decision was made without thought of them. Yet of those who, one by one, let themselves be drawn into the conflict, few were irresponsible and nearly all were genuinely anxious for an ultimate and better peace. Almost all—one excepts the King of Sweden—were actuated rather by fear than by lust of conquest or passion of faith. They wanted peace and they fought for thirty years to be sure of it. They did not learn then, and have not since, that war breeds only war."''
-->-- '''Cicely Vivienne Wedgwood''', ''The Thirty Years War''

->''"How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dugout? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried the bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?"''
-->-- '''Smedley Butler''', ''War Is a Racket''

->''"The War is Over. We've all had a bellyfull. The lights are on again. Some day when I'm older, someone may read a part of this diary, -- a son, a daughter or their children. War is a blasted stinking show for a cause which is sooon forgotten, and which is fed by propaganda and fanned by hysteria. The bugles blow and the bands play, but that is not the true picture YOU see. War is for the Generals and THEY see the glory, but not the honor and hardship of their field troops. Medals are never given deservedly to many -- many who should be recognized -- and a medal bestowed is from then on to be hidden, and bow your head if you ever show one when that war is over.\\
The code of men who really know and see is silence, because of a civilian ignorance and misunderstanding. All wars are the same and cannot be reported by anyone. Who can, if he is caught in the terrific noise and confusion, the filth, disease, cold -- and then so hot you stink like a dirty animal, -- scared -- wondering when, and not asking why?\\
Don't look for glamour. There is none. Correspondents can write and pick their spots. We can't."''
-->--'''Diary entry of unnamed U.S. Army Lieutenant''', November 11, 1918
[[/folder]]
----