Johnson once said "War is always the same. It is young men dying in the fullness of their promise. It is trying to kill a man that you do not even know well enough to hate. Therefore, to know war is to know that there is still madness in the world." This statement seems to interpret into saying that war is fought by young prideful men who are attempting to fight and kill other men who they don't even directly know, as a result of this the world must be in a bad state because of the actions of war. I agree with this statement and examples of this can be shown in multiple cases. Multiple examples of the truth of this statement can be found within the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Within this book it is shown many times how a situation in the story relates to this quote.
One situation in All Quiet on the Western Front that can directly relate to this quote is how all the soldiers of the war regardless of side, are fighting for another persons" cause. Many times it is shown in this story that although the issue of the war was not brought about by the soldiers, they were the ones fighting and dying for it. In a way this shows that the soldiers of war symbolize pawns. Both pawns and soldiers of war are used to get rid of another persons" problem. This relates to the quote by showing that the soldiers who fought in this story only did so because of a promise they had made to defend and support their country. Although it is the countries" problem the soldiers are used as pawns to solve it, and they will do so until they completely fulfill their promise.
Another example of how All Quiet on the Western Front can relate to this quote is shown by the soldiers of the war fighting and killing each other, when they don't even know each other. One specific example of this shown within the book is when Paul kills an enemy soldier, before realizing that the soldier he had killed was similar to him.