Read through the most famous quotes by topic #military
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. Was war just a power game for an elite few? Did the loss of human lives really matter to them, or was it just a way to keep score? In reading their own staff-authored speeches over and over again, had they deluded themselves, believing that any action they took was in the cause of freedom and thereby righteous? ↗
I doubt that my sense of personal freedom is any stronger than anybody else's. I'm happy to respect authority when it's genuine authority, based on moral or intellectual or even technical superiority. I'm eager to follow a hero if we can find one. But I tend to resist or evade any kind of authority based merely on the power to coerce. Government, for example. The Army tried to train us to salute the uniform, not the man. Failed. I will salute the man, maybe, if I think he's worthy of it, but I don't salute uniforms anymore. ↗
#coerce #government #military #respect-for-authority #salute
This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them! ↗
Most people today couldn't tell a bombardier from a brigadier" - said during a lecture in aid of the Army Benevolent Fund in 2009 ↗