" Golden words, those—“ to avoid bloodshed.” Any human action can be wrapped in golden phrases. “To avoid bloodshed”—so noble, so humane! What could anyone possibly say against it? Only, perhaps, that if your object is to avoid bloodshed you should have the foresight not to become a general. "

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn , August 1914 (The Red Wheel, #1)