WAR
RELATED INDEX TOPICS: Communism, Peace, World System.
1. What Emil Ludwig calls "annihilating statistics," he presents in the following ghastly summary of World War I: "Ten million men killed. A parade of these dead men, marching ten abreast from sunrise to sunset, with a new rank passing every two seconds, would take forty-six days to pass by a given spot!
To this number should be added 13,000,000 missing. There were also 10,000,000 refugees and 6,000,000 children who had lost their fathers. The daily loss of human life amounted to 16,585. The cost of the war came to a total of $338,000,000,000--in other words, $20,000 for every hour since the birth of Christ. The war itself cost $9,000,000 an hour to wage. In those four years, Europe lost all savings it had accumulated during a century!"
2. Dan Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America, was a naturalist who illustrated a number of the books of his friend Mark Twain. During one of his visits with Twain, the humorist read a new piece of writing entitled "The War Prayer." "Everyone who has heard it so far," said Twain, "tells me I must not let it be published. They say that people would call it a sacrilege."
"Still," said Beard, "you are going to publish it, are you not?"
Twain shook his head. He said he had told the truth in "The War Prayer," and the only people in this world who can tell the truth are the dead. "It can be published after I am dead."
It was, but little was heard of this remarkable work until Harper & Row published it in book form.
"The War Prayer" begins with the excitement of a country that has just become involved in war. Flags are flying, patriotic speeches are being made everywhere, and in a certain church the minister makes a very patriotic prayer. He asks the protection of God on the young men in the armed forces, victory on the war fronts, and defeat for the enemy.
During the pastoral prayer an old man wearing a long robe and long white hair walks slowly up the aisle, and as the startled minister concludes his prayer, touches him on the arm and takes his place in the pulpit with the words, "I come from the Throne--bearing a message from Almighty God!"
The amazed congregation listens as the stranger with the burning eyes explains what the pastoral prayer really means. Beseeching God for victory in the war, he says, really means, "Help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds." It means, "Blast their homes, send their wives and children out into the snow with bleeding wounds, utterly destroy them." The stranger asks the congregation if this is what they truly desire.
"The War Prayer" concludes, "It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said."
3. The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst.
4. If there is anything in which Earth, more than any other, resembles Hell, it is its wars.
5. As we bargain for peace let us remember there will be no refunds on lives given toward the same purpose.
6. The best place to hold productive peace conferences is a few hundred yards behind the lines of battle.
7. "Since 1919, the nations of Europe have signed more than 200 treaties of peace. Each treaty, simply another scrap of paper, was broken more easily than consummated.
"From the year 1500 B.C. to A.D. 1860 more than 8,000 treaties of peace, meant to remain in force forever, were concluded. The average time they remained in force was two years."
8. Once when Frederick the Great was about to declare war, he instructed his secretary to write the proclamation. The secretary began: "Whereas in the providence of God," etc., etc.
"Stop that lying," Frederick thundered; "simply say, 'Frederick wants more land.'"
9. The World will never be the dwelling place of peace until peace has found a home in the heart of each & every man.
10. History reveals that wars create more problems than they solve.
11. Bronislaw Malinowski says, "I once talked to an old cannibal who, hearing of the Great War raging then in Europe, was most curious to know how we Europeans managed to eat such enormous quantities of human flesh. When I told him that Europeans do not eat their slain foes, he looked at me in shocked horror and asked what sort of barbarians we were, to kill without any real object."
12. The biggest farce of man's history has been the argument that wars are fought to save civilization. If we saved civilization in two World Wars, we wonder where it is hiding now!
13. I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple blossoms fill the air--
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand,
And lead me into his dark land,
And close my eyes and quench my breath--
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow flowers appear.
God knows 'twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep,
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear ...
But I've a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year;
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.
--Alan Seeger, 1888-1916
14. The earth is weary of our foolish wars.
Her hills and shores were shaped for lovely things,
Yet all our years are spent in bickerings
Beneath the astonished stars.
April by April laden with beauty comes,
Autumn by Autumn turns our toil to gain,
But hand at sword hilt, still we start and strain
To catch the beat of drums.
Knowledge to knowledge adding, skill to skill,
We strive for others' good as for our own--
And then, like cavemen snarling with a bone,
We turn and rend and kill ...
With life so fair, and all too short a lease
Upon our special star! Nay, love and trust,
Not blood and thunder shall redeem our dust.
Let us have peace!
--Nancy Byrd Turner, Born 1880
15. When after many battle past,
Both, tired with blows, make peace at last,
What is it, after all, the people get?
Why, taxes, widows, wooden legs, and debt.
16. A tribal chief said the Russians would encounter little resistance from the people, "When people have nothing to lose, why should they be concerned? We are in chains today. Tomorrow the chains may be heavier, or they may be lighter. The prospect of this is not one which keeps the people of Baluchistan awake."
In Islamabad, the capital, a man was asked if the threat from the Russians meant Pakistanis would rally round the military ruler, General Zia ul-Haq. He answered with a parable: "A man was leading his heavily-laden donkey along a path when suddenly he saw bandits approaching. The man shouted to his donkey: 'Run! Run!' The donkey turned to him & said, 'Whoever is my master, I will be just as heavily laden as I am now. You run!'"
In Baluchistan, the most vulnerable of Pakistan's border provinces--a wild tribal area which has hardly advanced from the Middle Ages--a chief said disdainfully: "The West is not interested in us. The West is interested in her own overall interests in this region. Whoever safeguards that or guarantees that, be he the Devil himself or a cut-throat, the West would support him. Western democracy has always propped up dictators. They find it easier to deal with them."
Another Baluchi remarked: "A bullet is a bullet. What does it matter to me if it is fired from a Pakistani gun or a Russian gun? I will be just as dead."
17. Nuclear weapons are accumulating at a cost of $1 million a minute worldwide, with the stockpile exceeding 50,000 weapons, according to a study by a coalition of arms-control groups. It said the total equals 3.5 tons of TNT for every person on Earth.
18. Global spending on armaments has become an absurdity, according to Javier Perez de Cuellar, the UN secretary General. "In 1983, World military spending is rapidly approaching $800 billion," Mr. Perez de Cuellar said in an opening address to the Summer session of the UN Economic & Social Council. "The sheer magnitude baffles me," he said. "According to my rough calculation, the total amount of official aid to all developing countries from all sources in an entire year is now equal to 18 days of global military expenditure."
19. Discussing President Reagan's spending blueprint for the Defense Department--which calls for $1.5 trillion in military expenditures over five years--Rep. James Jones presented a parable of sorts: "If someone was going to spend a million Dollars a day, beginning on the day Christ was born 1,982 years ago, a million Dollars a day through the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, through the Age of Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution & modern era--every day spending a million Dollars--he would only spend half of what we're asking the Pentagon to spend over the next five years."
20. God is not for tolerance, God's for wiping out His enemies! God is not for making peace with the Sodomites in order to save a city, He's not even for making peace with the Communists in order to save the World, He's for wiping'm out!
21. We don't believe in the System's kind of war, which is waged & paid for by the rich to try to make'm richer! We don't believe in the wars of the rich robbers of the poor who wage wars to make the poor poorer & the rich richer! We believe in God's kind of wars where God in His righteousness & His judgements wipes out the wicked!
22. With God there's no compromise with the Enemy! With God there's no peace talks with the Enemy! You can't do business with the Devil! God is for wiping'm out, & that's what He's going to do! He's just giving people time to make their choice, that's all, & to show the whole Creation how evil Man can become without God & under the influence of the Devil, what the Devil's kingdom will lead to--total corruption & almost total destruction--& God is going to have to stop it with a war! The only way you can stop evil is to wipe it out, blot it out, slaughter the wicked, & that's what God's going to do!--Because the longer you let evil grow, the worse it gets!
23. God believes in wars of righteousness against wickedness & evil, anti-God, anti-Christ forces! If they're fought in the right spirit because they are defending the work of God & a nation of God & a nation of believers & Christians, God is all for them fighting to wipe out their enemies!
24. Pride is what has caused most wars, fomented them, started them, fought them & ended them!--Pride, just plain damn pride! There are some people who would rather die than surrender!
25. The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst.
26. War is a mere symptom. Economic bankruptcy & distress is a symptom. Political confusion is a symptom. The whole mess is merely the exterior sign of the disease within, & the disease within is irreligion, atheism, rebellion against God & defiance of the Lord & anti-Christ opposition to Jesus.
27. It is religion without Love that has been responsible for most of the misery of the World.
28. Democracy, with its promise of international peace, has been no better guarantee against war than the dynastic rule of kings.--Jan C. Smuts
29. There can be the "taut" or the "loose" bonds of discipline. A little winking of the rules here, a growing laxity there; perhaps a mental reservation at one time & neglect of proper procedures at another--& lo, you have a loose ship. Flabby discipline girds no one very well for battle, neither militarily nor spiritually.
30. Loving one's enemies does not mean to help them accomplish their sinister purposes.
31. Loving your enemy does not prohibit you from opposing him, or stopping him, or even defeating him.
32. There is nothing in the Christian concept of Love that requires you to support an enemy's desire to destroy you. Jesus didn't say: "Don't have enemies." He said: "Love your enemies." To love an enemy is not to support his prejudice against you either by default or design. It is to do what is in your enemy's best interest.
33. I have prayed in her fields of poppies.
I have laughed with the men who died--
But in all my ways & through all my days
Like a friend He walked beside.
I have seen a sight under Heaven
That only God understands,
In the battle's glare I have seen Christ there
With the sword of God in His hand.
--Gordon Johnstone--"On Fields of Flanders"
34. Even peace may be purchased at too high a price.
35. Peace won by the compromise of principles is a short-lived achievement.
36. What the nations of the World need is a peace conference with the Prince of Peace.
37. Those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.
Hence timely running's no mean part
Of conduct in the martial art.
--Butler
38. It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep, than a sheep at the head of an army of lions.--De Foe
39. The mere absence of war is not peace.--John F. Kennedy
40. If I must choose between peace & righteousness I choose righteousness.--Theodore Roosevelt
41. Sometimes the brutality of one's enemies requires a counter-violence--this is the principle of self-defence & the just war.
42. The only men who do not serve in some army are those who are ruled by someone else's army.
43. Without power you must do as you are told. When you lay down your arms, it's not the saints who will come marching in.
44. If we can't have peace without fighting for it, then let us fight with all our hearts.--Henry Ford
45. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.--George Washington
46. The peace is won by accompanying God into the battle.
47. War is the science of destruction.
48. The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility.
49. In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason & perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.--General Douglas MacArthur
50. The war is not done, so long as my enemy lives.
51. Wars bring scars.
Wars make thieves & peace hangs them.
52. In war time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.--Winston Churchill
53. One sword keeps another in the sheath.
54. The leaders of the French Revolution excited the poor against the rich; this made the rich poor, but it never made the poor rich.--Fisher Ames (1758-1808)
55. Covenants without swords are but words.--Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
56. Give me the order to do it & I can break up Russia's five A-bomb nests in a week. And when I go up to meet Christ...I think I could explain to Him that I had saved civilisation.--Major General Orvil A. Anderson
57. There comes a time when even God has to use force & violence against evil, & this is certainly clear throughout the Bible, because force & violence is almost the only thing that evil understands. It reminds you of the disastrous effect today of a soft policy toward criminals, no severe harsh punishments, no capital punishment or tough restraint by police. It's quite evident it hasn't worked. The criminals are worse & the mobs take advantage of the situation, & if the police don't exert some force & even violence to stop them, they'll just stomp all over them & overrun them!
That's why the Lord says that the police are officers of God who bear not the sword in vain. (Rom.13) Which means they need to bear swords, weapons, & not in vain, which means that if necessary they need to use them! Even some of Jesus' disciples carried swords. But our weapons are not carnal, but much more powerful, unto the tearing down of spiritual strongholds, fighting & opposing the spiritual wickedness in the spiritual realm. (2Cor.10:4)
58. God has given the Devil the authority to give this World to whomever he wishes (Luk.4:6), & he gives it to those who fight his wars--whether it's political warfare, economic warfare or military warfare--& go his way & do his dirtywork! And that's the way every major power or nation or dictator or king or whoever it is has gotten into power! They have never done it without violence.
59. In memory's eye I could see those staggering columns of the first World War, bending under soggy packs on many a weary march, from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through mire of shell-pocked roads to form grimly for the attack, blue-lipped, covered with sludge & mud, chilled by the wind & rain, driving home to their objective, & for many, to the judgement seat of God. ...
Twenty years after, on the other side of the Globe, again the filth of murky foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts ... the horror of stricken areas of war.
--Douglas MacArthur, near the end of his life.
60. It is only a generation after a war that the ordinary people begin to admit that it was a futile, foolish, & unnecessary one--which is something the Prophets, poets, & philosophers were nearly stoned for saying as it began.
61. History teaches us that when a barbarian race confronts a sleeping culture, the barbarian always wins.
62. In the last 3,421 years of recorded history only 268 have seen no war.--Will & Ariel Durant
63. (Bible stories and verses on "Utterly destroying your enemies!"
Exodus 9:3-6,15; 14:13-28; 15:1-19; 17:14; 23:22-24,27-33.
Numbers 21:2,3,21-35; 25:5; 33:50-53,55.
Deuteronomy 2:32-34; 3:2,3,6; 4:3-4, 23-27; 7:2-5,10,16-18,20-26; 9:3; 12:2,3,29; 13:12-16; 20:10-18; 28:7.
Joshua 2:10; 6:all; 8:21,23-26,29; 9:all; 10:all--esp.vs.13,14; 11:11,21b;23:3,5,9-10,12,13.
Judges 1:17; 2:1-15; 4:all; 5:all--especially vs.24-26; chapters 6-8.
1Samuel 14:6-23; 15:3,8,9,15,18-33; 17:all; 28:17-19.
2Samuel 7:9.
1Kings 9:21; 20:all.
2Kings 9:all; chapters 18,19.
1Chronicles 4:41a; 17:8.
2Chronicles 20:1-24--esp.vs.22-24; 22:7; 31:1; 32:1-21--esp.vs.21a.
Job 15:34.
Psalm 7:11-13; 10:15; 18:34,38-40; 34:16,21;37:9,28,38: 44:2,5; 50:22; 62:3; 76:12; 101:8; 106:34-36,40-42; 109:6-20; 118:10-12; 135:10-12.
Proverbs 2:22; 20:26.
Isaiah 9:14; 26:10,11; 60:12.
Jeremiah 1:10; 12:17; 13:14; 44:11; 50:14,25,26.
Ezekiel 9:3-6; 30:15.
Hosea 8:4.
Amos 9:8 Obadiah 1:9.
Micah 5:9,11-15.
Zephaniah 1:2-4.
Zechariah 13:2.
Romans 2:9.
1Corinthians 5:5.
2Corinthians 6:14-18.
Ephesians 5:11.
1Timothy 1:20.
2Timothy 4:14,15.
2Peter 2:9-12.
Revelation 18:8
64. Set the bells of mourning ringing,
Slowly ringing in the town;
There is blood upon the grass
Where our soldiers were gunned down!
The clouds come like a blanket
All across the darkened land,
And the rain comes down so heavy
That a man can hardly stand.
'Tis the heavens weeping with us
(Through the clouds so dark and black),
For our valiant frontline soldiers,
Who were gunned down in the back!
Though they're laid now to their rest
Let us not forget their name;
Let us promise to our nation
That they have not died in vain!
They are heroes! And their memory
Is a beacon on the hill!
That will burn till peace has come
And the cannons all lie still!
Yes, there's courage in this land,
Where our soldiers took a loss,
But still stand there strong at duty,
For they're soldiers of the cross!
So set the bells of freedom ringing!
Boldly ringing in the town!
Truth will triumph o'er the darkness!
We shall win the final round!
Are there heroes in our nation?
Godly men who take a stand?
Yes! Our valiant frontline soldiers
Stand at duty in our land!