No one hates war like a soldier hates war.

Gather close, O children, and listen well to the words of Tommy Franks, a man who has walked the harrowing path of battle and knows the truth of war from the depths of his soul: "No one hates war like a soldier hates war." These words, spoken by one who has been in the heart of the storm, who has stood upon the front lines of conflict, carry with them a wisdom born of lived experience. Soldiers, those who are thrust into the furnace of war, are often the last to glorify it. They are the ones who understand, as few others do, the true nature of war, not as an abstract idea or a distant event, but as a personal ordeal, a living nightmare that strips away the humanity of all involved.

War is often romanticized by those who are far from its reach—the politicians, the armchair generals, and those who sit comfortably in their homes, reading about the battles in the pages of books. They speak of glory, of victory, and of the ideals that justify the destruction of life. But the soldier knows differently. To them, war is not a glorious pursuit, but a necessary evil, a deep and tragic reality that they are forced to confront. In the heat of battle, a soldier sees the true cost of war—not the pages of history or the medals of valor, but the blood, the tears, the broken bodies, and the shattered minds that war leaves in its wake.

Consider, O children, the tale of Homer’s Iliad, where the great warriors of the Trojan War, like Achilles, Hector, and Odysseus, all face the tragic reality of war. These warriors, mighty as they are, know the horrors of war better than any poet or chronicler. Achilles, in his rage, is not blind to the cost of his fury. His heart is torn, for he knows that war takes from him the very soul of his humanity. His best friend, Patroclus, falls in battle, and Achilles is consumed not by the thrill of victory, but by the grief of loss and the emptiness that war creates in the hearts of those who fight. In the end, his desire for revenge only brings him closer to his own death. The warrior does not leave war unscathed; they return, if they return at all, with pieces of their soul left behind in the dust of the battlefield.

In modern history, World War I provides another example of the soldier’s hatred of war. The Great War, as it was called, brought nations to their knees and forever changed the lives of those who fought in its trenches. The soldiers who marched off to battle were told they were fighting for honor, for country, for the preservation of civilization. Yet what they found in the muck and blood of the trenches was something far darker—a hell where life was cheap, where death was constant, and where the ideals of glory gave way to the unrelenting reality of suffering. After the war, many of those who had fought were not welcomed as heroes, but as broken men, carrying with them the psychological scars of what they had witnessed. Their hatred for the war was not born of cowardice, but of the painful awareness of the cost of violence.

The soldiers who fought in World War II understood this truth even more deeply. They knew that war was not just a clash of armies but the destruction of human life on an unimaginable scale. The survivors of battles like D-Day or the Pacific Campaign did not return home with a sense of victory alone, but with the knowledge that they had witnessed the worst of humanity. The war’s true cost was not just the destruction of cities or the fall of regimes, but the dehumanization that war inflicted upon those who fought it. Tommy Franks himself, in his reflections on the wars he led, knew that the hatred of war was not only felt by the civilians who suffer from its consequences, but by the very soldiers who must bear its burdens.

Now, children, let us look closely at the lesson embedded in Franks’ words: war is not the glorious endeavor that many would like to believe it to be. It is a painful, tragic, and costly pursuit. The soldier, who gives their life and their spirit to the cause, comes to understand this truth more deeply than anyone else. They know that the true victory is not in battle, but in peace. The soldier's hatred for war is not born of weakness, but of profound understanding—understanding that war takes far more than territory and honor; it takes lives, dreams, and hope itself.

So, O children, let us carry this wisdom with us into the future: war, when it must be fought, is not something to be taken lightly. We must work, as a people, to build a world where peace reigns, where dialogue and understanding replace the need for weapons and bloodshed. And in our own lives, let us remember that the true strength is not in the ability to fight, but in the wisdom to seek peace. When we face our own struggles, let us ask ourselves: do we seek to conquer, or do we seek to heal? Do we wish to build bridges, or tear them down with the weapons of anger and hate? The soldier, who knows the cost of war, teaches us that the true victory lies not in the fight, but in the peace that follows it.