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“Men engaged in killing for petroleum can develop a suspicion that what they do is just wrong. Soldiers are trained, conditioned by experts, to do things that the civilized finds abhorrent. If a veteran begins to doubt the justness of the war, then he becomes no more than a hired murderer. This is not pleasant. Thus no one must be permitted to say it. A contagion might result.

“God forbid that soldiers begin to think. Independence of mind is dangerous to militaries. Training is chiefly a means of preventing it. Infrequently a soldier has the courage to see that what he is doing is both stupid and immoral, and walk away from it. Bowe Bergdahl did. I say, speaking as a former Marine in Viet Nam, and as a life member of both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled Veterans of America: You have my admiration, Sergeant Bergdahl.”

“Standing in the alleys of Yongsan,
I wonder if Pyongyang looks the same,
Everything broken; endless mud, Children searching for someone.
Tomorrow the looking will end; and the begging will begin.
Soldiers move briskly, confidently, among the ruins of what we have done to each other.
We did it! not because we wanted to; but because we were told to.
Well, it's done now. Tomorrow I'll go home to where the tellers are.
If there is any purpose to what I have done here,
It is the certainty that I will never again do what I am told.”

“For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' ‘Chuck him out, the brute!’
But it's ‘Saviour of 'is country’ when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool — you bet that Tommy sees!”

“I disagree with your premise [that Hillary might have lost because of her ‘advocacy of multiple wars and other military actions, many, if not all, of which were rather disastrous’] as I believe that Trump was equally, if not more, bellicose than Hillary. A quote from Trump's campaign that I dug up on google: ‘As soon as I take office, I will ask Congress to fully eliminate the defense sequester and will submit a new budget to rebuild our military. It is so depleted. We will rebuild our military.’

“Sadly, I'm afraid ‘strong defense’ still appeals to a good percentage of the electorate. And while many Democrats have been as hawkish as Republicans, the wars in the 21st century were started in Republican administrations.”

“I would certainly not do first strike. Once the nuclear alternative happens, it’s over.” —Donald Trump

“The real problem with Trump is that, in his lucid moments, he seems not to want a war with Russia.” —John Pilger

“The irony of Trump perpetuating wars that he once roundly criticized and then handing the conduct of those wars to generals devoid of ideas for ending them almost entirely escapes notice.” —Andrew Bacevich

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