Cannon Fodder Quotes & Sayings

A young man is the perfect soldier. He has great potential for aggression and a limited critical capacity - or none at all - with which to analyze it and judge how to channel it. Throughout history societies have found ways of using this store of aggression, turning their adolescents into soldiers, cannon fodder with which to conquer their neighbors or defend themselves against their aggressors. — Carlos Ruiz Zafon

You need at this time especially to know that you are fit for something better than slavery and cannon fodder. — Eugene V. Debs

However, in the twenty-first century the majority of both men and women might lose their military and economic value. Gone is the mass conscription of the two world wars. The most advanced armies of the twenty-first century rely far more on cutting-edge technology. Instead of limitless cannon fodder, countries now need only small numbers of highly trained soldiers, even smaller numbers of special forces super-warriors and a handful of experts who know how to produce and use sophisticated technology. Hi-tech forces 'manned' by pilotless drones and cyber-worms are replacing the mass armies of the twentieth century, and generals delegate more and more critical decisions to algorithms. — Yuval Noah Harari

Science and religion stand watch over different aspects of all our major flashpoints. May they do so in peace and reinforcement--and not like the men who served as a cannon fodder in World War I, dug into the trenches of a senseless and apparently interminable conflict, while lobbing bullets and canisters of poison gas at a supposed enemy, who, like any soldier, just wanted to get off the battlefield and on with a potentially productive and rewarding life. — Stephen Jay Gould

The Arabs could have peace tomorrow if sufficient numbers of Palestinians were not content to be used as cannon fodder in fruitless assaults on Israel, even as the surrounding Arab powers distract the Arab masses with the red herring of Israel while retarding their countries with their repression and corruption. — Conrad Black

"Are you sure about that?" Corey muttered once the were gone. "Chloe is nice enough, but that Derek? Real charmer. If anyone busts through that door, he's liable to throw us to them as cannon fodder."
I wasn't sure I disagreed. — Kelley Armstrong

Novelists are evil psychopomps, basically. We treat a few characters as real, but the rest of them are cannon fodder. — Scott Westerfeld

And this Atlantean Destroyer is now leading the Daimons and sending them out to battle against Acheron, who is just using us and the humans as cannon fodder to protect himself? Really, Kyros, put down the crack pipe ... or go write children's fantasy novels. I'll bet you even know exactly who conspired to kill Kennedy, huh? I'm sure the money from D.B. Cooper is what financed your stunning collection of furniture. (Danger) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

Then the screen comes on, showing a familiar menu on a blue background and I stare at it, transfixed, like a yokel who's never seen a television before. Because it's not a TV. It's a flat-screen PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition. They can't be that dumb. It's got to be a trap, I gibber to myself. Not even the clueless cannon-fodder-in-jumpsuits who staff any one of the movies on the shelf would be that dumb! — Charles Stross

You are being used as cannon fodder for U.S. imperialism. — Jane Fonda

Can't you see,Jimmy?It's not a war about our freedom,it's a power struggle between rulers and bosses wanting more land,more power.The likes of you and me are just cannon fodder in their draft war.We should have nothing to do with it,let alone be supporting it! The only fight that concerns the working man is the one the trades unions are fighting against the bosses.That's the only struggle I'm bothered about and I don't give a toss if they're British bosses or German! — Janet MacLeod Trotter

The Civilized ... murder their children by producing too many of them without being able to provide for their well-being. Morality or theories of false virtue stimulate them to manufacture cannon fodder, anthills of conscripts who are forced to sell themselves out of poverty. This improvident paternity is a false virtue, the selfishness of pleasure. — Charles Fourier

The men were ordered to retreat, and to leave the dead. In the sun the injured would die of thirst the following day. "That was the moment when I realised the truth of my mother's words, that we were just 'cannon-fodder'. Young private soldiers were ordered, time and time again, to march directly into gunfire, and High Command didn't give a damn how many died, nor the cost in human suffering. — Jennifer Worth

We understand that Nixon's aggression against Vietnam is a racist aggression, that the American war in Vietnam is a racist war, a white man's war ... We deplore that you are being used as cannon fodder for U.S. imperialism. We've seen photographs of American bombs and antipersonnel weapons being dropped, wantonly, accidentally perhaps, on your heads, on the heads of your comrades. — Jane Fonda

Every war in history was fought by the cannon fodder. All for the benefit of someone who stayed safe and above it all. They get you into the fight with high-flown rhetoric, and then they blood you, don't they? They make sure you've seen a friend's blood and drawn blood from an enemy. You're pushed into their fight, but now you've lost people, so now it's personal. Now it's too late to get out because you've done things ... unimaginable things.
BZRK: Reloaded — Michael Grant

In preparing the psychological attack on a city, Genghis Khan began with two examples of what awaited the people. He offered generous terms of surrender to the outlying communities, and the ones that accepted the terms and joined the Mongols received great leniency. In the words of the Persian chronicler, "whoever yields and submits to them is safe and free from the terror and disgrace of their severity." Those that refused received exceptionally harsh treatment, as the Mongols herded the captives before them to be used as cannon fodder in the next attack. — Jack Weatherford

If we care about the children, the grandchildren, the future generations, we need to make sure that they do not become the cannon fodder of the future. — Helen Thomas

Would you render the same level of support to someone who hadn't conscientiously objected, but rather instead rolled a grenade under their line officer in order to neutralize the combat capacity of their unit? ... Conscientious objection removes a given piece of the cannon fodder from the fray; fragging an officer has a much more impactful effect. — Ward Churchill