Reflections on war

Lynndie England the US soldier in a number of the pictures of 
naked Iraqi citizens claimed in her defence that she was only 
following orders. The Nuremberg Tribunal (1945-1946) which tried 
German war criminals concluded:

Individuals have international duties which transcend the 
national obligations of obedience ... Therefore [individual 
citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent 
crimes against peace and humanity from occurring.

The Nuremberg Tribunal 1945-1946.

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A modern gentleman is necessarily the enemy of his country. 
Even in war he does not fight to defend it, but to prevent his 
power of preying on it from passing to a foreigner.

George Bernard Shaw

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We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.

Stephen Vincent Benit

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Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of 
killing for their country.

Bertrand Russell, attributed

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War paralyses your courage and deadens the spirit of true 
manhood. It degrades and stupefies with the sense that you are 
not responsible, that 'tis not yours to think and reason why, but 
to do and die', like the hundred thousand others doomed like 
yourself. War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, 
brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible 
murder.

Alexander Berkman

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The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of 
the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever 
managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity —
much less dissent.

Gore Vidal