====
Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
American writers on peace and against war
Nathanael West: They haven’t the proper military slant
====
Nathanael West
From Good Hunting (1938)
FITZSIMMONS
We’ve been trying to take the Pepper Mill for months with that plan. We’ve held up the advance on the whole front. We’ve been hurled back again and again…routed…destroyed!
KILBRECHT
An attack is never entirely wasted. Experience under fire, you know, has moral value.
FRENIQUE
Marvelous training.
JARVIS
After all, we are turning a rabble of bookkeepers and farmers into an army of battle-tried soldiers.
FITZSIMMONS
What’s left of them.
FRENIQUE
(As though they should be glad)
They died for France!
FITZSIMMONS
Sure – only one live recruit is better than a dozen dead veterans.
Source