#soldiers

I have watched them all day and they are the same men that we are. I believe that I could walk up to the mill and knock on the door and I would be welcome except that they have orders to challenge all travelers and ask to see their papers. It is only orders that come between us. Those men are not fascists. I call them so, but they are not. They are poor men as we are. They should never be fighting against us and I do not like to think of the killing. ↗

— Ernest Hemingway

#for-whom-the-bell-tolls #soldiers #war #men

For no matter how many battles had been won or lost, no matter how many friends and soldiers killed, every battle felt like the first. And I realized that it wasn't the training, nor the pain of seeing friends die, nor the will to win that made the men fight, but their will to survive that made them soldiers. ↗

— Magus Guidan

#survival #war #men

We came to realise - first with astonishment, then bitterness, and finally with indifference - that intellect apparently wasn't the most important thing...not ideas, but the system; not freedom, but drill. We had joined up with enthusiasm and with good will; but they did everything to knock that out of us. ↗

— Erich Maria Remarque

#soldiers #war #freedom

During the few months Troy had been back home, he’d told his friends about us, and so we quickly eased into the conversation as though we’d all known each other for many years. They embarrassed us with great thanks for having served overseas. They recounted combat events Troy had told them, and we realized by the context of their stories that Troy had made us heroes for his friends because we’d been heroes to him. At this point I was the saddest I’d yet been over Troy’s passing, because the true friend from war is the friend who obliterates his own story by telling the stories of others. ↗

— Anthony Swofford

#war #home

Ministers regularly meet soldiers that have returned from operational tours to hear about their experiences, including those who have recovered from their injuries. ↗

— Geoff Hoon

#experiences #hear #including #injuries #meet

They may not be conscripted against their will as the foot soldiers in a federal crusade. ↗

— John Paul Stevens

#crusade #federal #foot #may #soldiers

Our brave soldiers and support personnel are engaged in a battle as important as any the United States has ever before waged, for the success of democracy in Iraq is a crucial test of the ideals this Nation was founded upon. ↗

— Virginia Foxx

#battle #before #brave #brave soldiers #crucial

A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments. ↗

— Georg C. Lichtenberg

#better #handful #soldiers #than

Our soldiers have nobly fought to protect freedom since our country's birth, and have fought to protect those that could not protect themselves, even in foreign lands when called upon. ↗

— John Linder

#called #could #country #even #foreign

And to me, it was interesting, some of the people I had interviewed who knew the insides to this program said that they also, to create anxiety and upset in the soldiers, they take Bibles and they trash them. ↗

— Jane Mayer

#anxiety #create #had #i #insides