Wisdom from the Fathers of Our Country

As we all pause for this July 4th holiday, ponder these thoughts from some great patriots:

"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing." --Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."
--George Washington

"The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force."
--Thomas Jefferson

"Wars are not paid for in wartime, the bill comes later."
--Benjamin Franklin

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
--James Madison

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."
--George McGovern

"The statesman who yields to war fever...is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events."
--Sir Winston Churchill

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president...is morally treasonable to the American public."
--Theodore Roosevelt

"Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear."
--General Douglas MacArthur

And my favorite comees from the FDR Memorial along the Potomac River. FDR served as assistant secretary of the Navy during WWI, and visited the frontlines in France. In 1936, as president, he gave a speech at Chatauqua, NY that included these memorable lines:

"I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen 200 limping, exhausted men come out of line—the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt

AND THIS PRESIDENT?

"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace." --George W. Bush