There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for …

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent …

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary. — Mohandas Ghandi

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. — Dwight Eisenhower

War does not end strife - it sows it. War does not end hatred - it feeds it. For those who argue war is a necessary evil, I say you are half right. War is evil (where strife, there every evil work: Bible, James 3:16). But it is not necessary. War cannot be a necessary evil, because non-violence is a necessary good. The two cannot co-exist. — Congressman John Lewis

Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. — Hermann Göring

A pre-emptive war in 'defense' of freedom would surely destroy freedom, because one simply cannot engage in barbarous action without becoming a barbarian, because one cannot defend human values by calculated and unprovoked violence without doing mortal damage to the values one is trying to defend. — J. William Fulbright

Waging war to produce peace is a fantastic and ultimate contradiction in terms. At its most essential and spiritual levels, victory does not exist. It is at best a fleeting illusion.

The author Chalmers Johnson (Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire), among many others, has more than convincingly shown how war only seeds more war by, at least, creating resentment and the roots of revenge; by dividing peoples and nations arbitrarily with imposed new borders; by seeing and implementing short-term "strategic solutions" that ignore and/or create longer-term disastrous consequences.

Much of humanity shrugs, claiming that war is inevitable and "a fact of human nature." I absolutely reject that belief. It is not so "black and white". I do believe that humans do carry a tendency to resort to violence, but at the same time ontologically wish and hope for peace. In this context, it is possible to nurture the spirit of peace and starve the appetite for war. Where I am called "naive" in believing this, I wear the appellation proudly as a badge of honor. I say that those who promote war as a solution for anything are ignorant morons.

I submit that "victory" in war is always at the cost of thousands, perhaps millions, of souls, the elimination of nations and cultures, the laying waste of the earth, the expenditure of wealth and resources that could otherwise be used to construct and defend peace, elevating the lives and security of all peoples. Peace without war is by contrast cheap, in some cases free. It is certain that the maintenance of peace is always less costly than the waging of war.

Göring's quote, above, is perfectly true. War and the conditions of war are manufactured by the few, who imagine that they have something to gain for themselves (power and riches). These few generally do not reveal the true motivation for war, but sell war to the many by lies, deceit, and fear. The few rarely actually fight. The waging of war is the task of the many.

On February 6, 2007 Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced in the US House H.R. 808 [PDF], which would establish a cabinet-level US Department of Peace and Nonviolence.

In the "Findings" section of the legislation, we find:  Read more