Historical Quote ?

Question

What does this quote mean?

Their never was a good war, or a bad piece. By Benjamin Franklin.

and can someone give me an example from a historical event

and an example from a book

and a literary example.. please need help. dont understand this question

and your opinions on if you agree or disagree on this quote.

all the help appreciated thanks.

Answer 1

Meaning is that war is so horrible that, whatever the reasons you may find, there is no war you can define as "good". At the same time, benefits of peace are so great that there is no peace (no settlement of a dispute) you can consider completely bad. Lets think about Afghanistan war: while it made the Taliban quit government, it caused so many civilian deaths, destruction  and few real results  for Afghan people (current government is no better) or for America (terrorism increased). Can you define it a "good" war ?

This doesn't mean that sometimes the only way to solve a conflict is through war: it is very rare, but sometimes war could be the last possible choice. In this case it may be just and unavoidable to go to war (i.e. WW II or some liberation wars) but in any case it is not "good" because war always implies deaths and destruction.

Peace should not be obtained at the cost to renounce to freedom and life of others, but we must always look for an opportunity of negotiation and peace.

For a different historical approach to conflict resolution you may check about Gandhi in India and how he freed India from British colonialism .

Even General Robert E. Lee said: "it is well that war is so terrible: we may grow too fond of it" confirming that both war is ALWAYS terrible, and should be used as  less as possible as a mean of conflict resolution.

You may find so many descriptions of the horrors of any kind of war  and criticism of militarism in literature that it is difficult to give you some specific hint: may be you can check Dos Passos three soldiers, or any book of Hemingway (not a pacifist, but honest about war's true face), or Cummings "The enormous room"