Well, one country offends another.
How could one country offend another? You mean there's a mountain over in Germany gets mad...at a field over in France ?
Well, stupid, one people offends another.
Oh, if that's it, I shouldn't be here at all. I don't feel offended.
It don't apply to tramps like you.
Good. Then I can be going home right away.
Ah, you just try it.
Yeah. You wanna get shot?
Somebody must have wanted it. Maybe it was the English. No, I don't want to shoot any Englishmen. I never saw one till I came up here. And I suppose most of them never saw a German till they came up here. No, I'm sure they weren't asked about it.
Well...it must be doing somebody some good.
I think maybe the Kaiser...wanted a war.
I don't see that. The Kaiser's got everything he needs.
Well, he never had a war before.
Every full-grown emperor needs one war to make him famous. Why, that's history. Yeah, generals too. They need war.
And manufacturers. They get rich.
I think it's more a kind of fever. Nobody wants it in particular...and then all at once, there it is. We didn't want it. The English didn't want it. And here we are fighting.
I'll tell you how it should all be done. Whenever there's a big war coming on...You should rope off a big field...And sell tickets. Yeah. And on the big day...you should take all the kings and their cabinets and their generals...put them in the center dressed in their underpants...and let them fight it out with clubs. The best country wins.
-All Quiet on the Western Front
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