THERE are so many millions of new words being churned out day after day about war that there are hardly any left that are worth deploying in the battle to catch a reader's eye.

Fortunately, many others have fought over the same ground before, and some of their old words are worth bearing in mind:

Either war is obselete, or men are.

R Buckminster Fuller, US architect, 1966

Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.

Carl Sandburg, US poet, 1936

Blunders are an inescapable feature of war, because choice in military affairs lies generally between the bad and the worse.

Allan Massie, author, 1938

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the US was too strong.

Ronald Reagan, 1980

War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Edwin Starr, soul singer, 1970

To save your world you asked this man to die:

Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?

Matthew Arnold, poet, 1867

Then said Jesus unto him: 'Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.'

Bible: Matthew 26:52

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee

Had spoiled his nice new rattle

Lewis Carroll, 1872

In war, whichever side may call itself the victor, there are no winners, but all are losers.

Neville Chamberlain, 1939

War is the continuation of politics by other means.

Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1810), Prussian general

The first casualty when war comes is truth.

Hiram Warren Johnson. US politician, 1917

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

Martin Luther King, 1963

Red lips are not so red

As the stained stones kissed by the English dead

Wilfred Owen, 1917

That war is an evil is something that we all know, and it would be pointless to go on cataloguing all the disadvantages involved in it... The fact is that one side thinks that the profits to be won outweigh the risks to be incurred, and the other side is ready to face danger rather than accept an immediate loss.

Thucydides, Greek writer, 4th Century BC

Out of that bungled, unwise war

An alp of unforgiveness grew.

William Plomer, British poet, 1960 (written about the Boer War)

War makes rattling good history; but peace makes poor reading.

Thomas Hardy, novelist, 1904

War is the most exciting and dramatic thing in life. In fighting to the death you feel terribly relaxed when you managed to come though.

Moshe Dayan, Israeli general, 1972

We hear war called murder. It is not: it is suicide.

Ramsay MacDonald, British politician, 1930

But what can war but endless war still breed?

John Milton, poet, 1648