“To hold the voice down and the eyes up when facing someone who antagonizes you is a slight weight–once. But in a lifetime it adds up to tons.”
“I belong to a small fanatical sect. We believe that the current ways of carrying on world affairs are malignant. We believe that armies, and the kind of international dealings based on armed might, will be self-perpetuating to a certain point–and that point may bring annihilation. Armies are a result of obsolete ways–just as gibbets are, and as thumb-screws are, and leper windows.”
“It might be that military appropriations should be increased. We need an easy, enlightened, well-paid, courteously treated army–one so good that it will cooperate in its own decline.”
“Every war has two losers.”
—William Stafford (1914-1993), acclaimed poet (including “Vocation” below) and conscientious objector during WWII, excerpted from Every War Has Two Losers
Ex-Marine Alleges Violent Hazing and the Lies that Covered It Up, from the NYT
Suicide Rate Spikes Among Young Veterans, from Stars and Stripes
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Soldiers of Conscience, from PBS
The title looked at first glance like "Every war has two lobsters".
I have never understood military culture, but it is obviously self-perpetuating. One of the best things my dad did when I was in high school was to gently dissuade me when I suggested that I might join the Navy.