Sir, you do understand that – officially – I’m not actually a centurion. I haven’t even been assigned to a legion yet.’The general continued writing as he spoke. ‘What was the name?”Corbulo, sir.”Corbulo, you have...

The sergeants are shunted forward and they blink and stare up at Gonzo as he leans on the edge of his giant mixing bowl. MacArthur never addressed his troops from a mixing bowl–not even one...

But to us of a later generation…it is inconceivable that millions of Christian men should have killed and tortured each other, because Napoleon was ambitious, Alexander firm, English policy crafty, and the Duke of Oldenburg...

Are these soldiers really our enemy, or only the worst reflection of our own selves?… We made them. We have to unmake them, not just defeat or kill them.

Risk is the factor of a stratagem measured by what man is powerless to control.

Wer davonläuft kann später kämpfen.

It’s a war,

You’re British, you’re a priest, you’re a medical doctor, you can handle a rifle, you know Morse Code, and most importantly of all, you’re a fucking pain in the ass – so off you go!

It was strange to us that none of these three victims made any attempt to resist the attack. Indeed, not one inhabitant in any of these worlds considered for a moment the possibility of resistance....

They are certainly bracing for war,

Part of the terrible irony of war is that it enlists the best in human nature for purposes of mutual destruction.

Few indeed are those who get a choice. We do as we are told. We stand or fall beside those who were born near to us, who look as we do, who speak the same...

War, my friends, is a thing of beauty.

War: a wretched debasement of all the pretenses of civilization

War is not one-sided. It takes two blades to clash. It matters little who comes out on top, there is still a dead man at the end.

I prefer the most unfair peace to the most righteous war.

The attack came without warning, in the pre-dawn stillness on the day they were due to leave. A series of solid concussions shook the walls and sent Simon scrambling from his bunk. Max thrust a...

We are at war and I am a soldier.

Das Mädchen […] hatte wasserblaue Augen, die so klar waren, als hätten sie noch nie im Leben Leid oder Schrecken gesehen. Und dennoch spiegelte sich darin auch Härte. Was hast du erlebt, dass du dich...

We are at war. War is not on battlefield. It is in boardrooms of companies that control your United States of America.

What is happening? The war was over, wasn’t it?

No honest journalist should be willing to describe himself or herseif as ’embedded.’ To say, ‘I’m an embedded journalist’ is to say, ‘I’m a government Propagandist.

War, not peace, produces virtue. War, not peace, purges vice. War, and preparation for war, call forth all that is noble and honorable in a man. It unites him with his brothers and binds them...

The way of war was the invention of heavenly beings.

They plot, they plot, sleeping or afoot they never let up.

The darkest of all hells resides in ones mind

History is reticent about women who were common soldiers, who bore arms, belonged to regiments, and took part in battles on the same terms as men, though hardly a war has been waged without women...

The world changed on 9/11, but it didn’t give a damn what we lost or how much we hurt. It didn’t stop spinning. It would go on, one way or another, and it was up...

Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to...

..war doesn’t decide who is right – it just decides who is left.

If you’re all so peaceful up there, how did you get such greedy and cruel ideas?”The dragon was silent for a long time after this question. And at last he said: “It just came over...

You haven’t lived a full life until you have been in a very tough situation when you thought you were going to die. War does that to you.

Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.

One hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful, subduing the other’s military without battle is the most skillful.

Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with an army that is returning home.

Whether in an advantageous position or a disadvantageous one, the opposite state should be always present to your mind.

When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men’s weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your...

By now the crusaders had christened the most powerful French catapult ‘Mal Voisine’, or ‘Bad Neighbour’, while nicknaming the Muslim stone-thrower that targeted it for conter-bombardment ‘Mal Cousine’, or ‘Bad Relation’.

The tears are falling freely now, and I don’t care if he sees them. They’re tears of relief for my nephew, worry for my grandfather and my brother, and shame for my mistake. I figure...

He goes on and on about war like it is something beautiful and noble, which only means he’s never seen it himself. War is hideous and it leaves you covered in shit. I cannot kill...

I feel sad for him. Sad for the boy bound to the killer. I am sad for the youth betrayed by their leaders for symbols and flags and war and power.

On one stretcher lay a man who had been mutilated in a particularly monstrous way. A large splinter from the shell that had mangled his face, turning his tongue and lips into a red gruel...

you can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. If you don’t care for obscenity, you don’t care for the truth; if you don’t care for the truth, watch how you vote. Send...

Words of war, on a piece of paper. Where peace is torn off, crumbled and toss in the waste basket.

Wars are won in the will.

And yet it’s there, we witnessed it being lit. And fires once lit have to burn until they spend themselves or someone extinguishes them,” Anaxantis said, with some deep regret coating his voice.

There was nothing green left; artillery had denuded and scarred every inch of ground. Tiny flares glowed and disappeared. Shrapnel burst with bluish white puffs. Jets of flamethrowers flickered and here and there new explosions...

I said, ‘I have heard people talk about war as if it was a very fine thing.’ Ah!’ said [Captain], ‘I should think they never saw it. No doubt it is very fine when there...

As for the smoking of marijuana, it is the exploitation for the workers.” Both favor alcohol and are against pot.

Have we raised the threshold of horror so high that nothing short of a nuclear strike qualifies as a ‘real’ war? Are we to spend the rest of our lives in this state of high...