Human Cost of War Quotes

The vanquished know war. They see through the empty jingoism of those who use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the cries of the wounded, the senseless killing, war profiteering, and chest-pounding grief.

It would be better if only the old men fought the wars. Every country is the country of youth. When its youth dies, it dies with them.

The tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.

When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.

I do have a very deep sense of regret that there was a conflict and that people lost their lives, and you know, many were responsible for that - and a lot of them wear pinstripe suits in London today.

It’s very easy to advocate going to war if you’re not one of the people who is going.

The people who are sending our men and women in uniform into conflict need to understand that there are some things worth fighting for, but also understand the high cost of war.

In media coverage of the war, Afghans are often characterized as corrupt and deceitful. There has certainly been plenty of corruption and deceit in this conflict, but why? What inspires these behaviors? In 'Green on Blue,' I wanted to render a world that is often overlooked: that of the average Afghans who are helping America wage its war.

The unvarnished truth is that we have spent the last decade funding the machinery of war, and our children have been sacrificed.

The most difficult idea to reconcile in war is the notion that anything is going to be solved by killing a stranger, or in risking your life for a cause anchored in some distant political arena.

If they are going to have war, they ought to take the old men and leave the young to propagate the race.

My father was killed by a German mine, while I lost other relatives in Allied bombing attacks.

war is not just a victory or loss ... People die.

The soldiers at the DMZ are all very young, and I feel guilty about that.

To hear of a thousand deaths in war is terrible, and we 'know' that it is. But as it registers on our hearts, it is not more terrible than one death fully imagined.

When you go to war, both sides lose totally.

Someone earlier made a remark about losing 500 soldiers and 2,200 wounded in Iraq. Those soldiers were sent there by the vote of Sen. Lieberman, Sen. Edwards and Sen. Kerry. I think that is a serious matter.

Someday, I have no doubt, the dead from today's wars will be seen with a similar sense of sorrow at needless loss and folly as those millions of men who lie in the cemeteries of France and Belgium - and tens of millions of Americans will feel a similar revulsion for the politicians and generals who were so spendthrift with others' lives.

I can stand by no longer and see these disgusting performances by the Navy and War Departments at the expense of the lives of our people, and the delusion of the American public.

It is up to you to decide that this has lasted long enough, that our boys are dying to serve no British interest but for the interests of a small clique of utterly unscrupulous men.

Many, who should know better, think that wars can be decided by soulless machines, rather than by the blood and anguish of brave men.

… once America goes off to war, it can't very well return without having fought one. If it doesn't find its enemy, for the sake of the enraged folks back home, it will have to manufacture one. Once war begins, it will develop a momentum, a logic and a justification of its own, and we'll lose sight of why it's being fought in the first place.

Very often when we talk about war, conflict or terrorism, we talk about it very politically. We forget that there are people involved.

When we think of war, the tendency is to picture young soldiers only in their military roles. To a large extent this dehumanizes the soldiers and makes it easier for society to commit them to combat.

In books or films, it is desirable to have a climactic battle scene, but the world does not operate in those gross dramatic terms. In Vietnam, there was a general aimlessness, not just in the physical sense, but beyond that in the moral and ethical sense.