“The truth is that very few people know anything about war. In an infantry division, for example, fewer than half the troops actually fight. That is, with rifles, mortars, machine guns, grenades, and trench knives. The others, thousands on thousands of them, are occupied with truck driving, mimeograph machine operating, cooking and baking, ammunition and ration supplying, and similar housekeeping tasks. Now, those things are no doubt necessary, but they’re hardly bellicose. And they hardly provide the sort of experience which can issue as trustworthy testimony about what the word *war* might mean.”
Recorded at the Mises Institute’s “Costs of War” conference in May 1994 in Auburn, Alabama: https://mises.org/library/the-costs-war
Paul Fussell (1924–2012) served with the 103rd Infantry Division in World War II. He was wounded during the Rhineland campaign. His many books include his autobiography: Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic (Little, Brown).