Neither reading about nor seeing the horrors of war stops people from participating in it. One of the reasons for this is that people subconsciously conclude that if such a terrible thing exists and is allowed, then there are probably hidden reasons for it. This notion compels people who are typically not violent to defend war, to look for its positive aspects in the same way that people try to find something positive in natural disasters, forgetting that they themselves are the ones doing it.
Thought freezes in horror before the inevitable catastrophe that awaits us at the end of the century, and we must prepare for it. For the past 20 years, all intellectual efforts have been consumed on the invention of instruments of destruction, and soon only a few shots from a cannon will be enough to destroy a whole army. Nowadays it is not just a few poor mercenaries under arms, but whole nations, whole nations are preparing to kill each other. In order to make them ready to kill, they stir up animosity by convincing the people that they are hated, and the gentle people believe it, and so now crowds of peaceful citizens, having received an absurd order to kill each other—God only knows because of what ridiculous division of borders or mercantile, colonial interests—pounce on each other with the ferocity of wild animals.
And they will go like sheep to the slaughter, knowing where they are going, knowing that they are leaving behind their wives, that their children will go hungry, but they will keep going for they have become intoxicated by sonorous, deceitful words, they have become deceived to such an extent that, imaging that the slaughter constitutes their duty, they will ask God to bless their bloody deeds. And they will keep going, trampling the harvests they sowed, burning the cities they built, with jubilant songs, cries of joy, celebratory music, they will keep going without complaining, obedient and meek, despite the fact that there is power in them, and that if they were able to come to an agreement, they would establish common sense and brotherhood in place of the savage schemes of the diplomats.
— Rod
An eyewitness recounts what he saw in the Russo-Japanese War, when he stepped onto the deck of the “Varyaga.” It was a terrible spectacle. There was blood everywhere, scraps of flesh, headless corpses, torn hands, the smell of blood, which made even those who were used to it nauseous. The turret suffered the most. A grenade exploded at the top and killed a young officer who was in charge of aiming. A clenched hand gripping an instrument was the only thing left of the unfortunate man. Out of the four men who were with the commander, two were torn to pieces and the other two were heavily wounded (not only were both of their legs amputated, the amputation had to be repeated one more time); the commander escaped with a blow from a fragment to his temple.
And this is not all. The neutrals cannot take the wounded onto their ships because gangrene and fever are infectious.
Gangrene and purulent, hospital infections, along with hunger, fires, devastation, illnesses, typhus and smallpox also constitute the glory of war. Such is war.
And meanwhile, this is how Joseph Meister sang the praises of war:
“When, as a consequence of effeminacy, the human soul loses its resilience, turns atheist and assimilates the putrid vices that follow the excesses of civilization, it can be restored only in blood.”
But the unlucky ones who are used as cannon fodder have the right to disagree with this.
Unfortunately, they lack the courage of their convictions. This is the source of all evil. Having grown accustomed to letting themselves be killed for the sake of questions they do not understand, they continue doing it, imagining that everything is going well.
That is why there are now corpses lying underwater, being consumed by crayfish.
As everything around them was being pulverized by grapeshot, they could hardly be happy to think that all this was done for their own good, for the sake of restoring the souls of their contemporaries, who have lost their resilience from excesses of civilization.
The unlucky ones probably did not read Joseph Meister. I recommend the wounded read him between their dressings. They will learn that war is as necessary as an executioner, because, just like an executioner, it is a manifestation of God’s justice.
And this great thought will serve as consolation to them as the surgeon’s blade begins sawing their bones.
— Harduin
War is more terrible than ever. A skillful artist in this field, the ingenious killer General Moltke, made this strange reply to the peace delegates:
“War is a sacred, divine institution, it is one of the sacred laws of the world. It maintains all the great and noble feelings in men: honor, selflessness, virtue, courage—in a word, it saves men from repulsive materialism.”
So it turns out that to assemble in a herd of four hundred thousand men, to march day and night without rest, thinking of nothing, studying nothing, learning nothing, reading nothing, to be of no use to anyone, to decay in filth, to sleep in dirt, to live like cattle in constant stupefaction, to pillage cities, burn villages, ruin nations, and then, meeting a similar mass of human meat, to charge it, spill a lake of blood, cover the fields with torn flesh and piles of corpses, to be crippled, to be crushed for no purpose for whomever it may be and, at last, to expire on some foreign field, while your parents, your wife and your children are dying of hunger at home—that is what is called to save men from repulsive materialism.
— Guy de Maupassant
The time for discussing the harm of war has passed. Everything has already been said on this topic. Now there is only one thing left for everyone to begin doing: to abstain from doing that which they consider wrong.
It is not true that the existence of war proves its necessity. The conscience of humankind says that this is false and that there must not be war.
