"No one really wants to send their kids off to die for oil"
About this Quote
The phrase “send their kids off” deliberately shrinks the distance between the home and the battlefield. It’s not “troops” or “service members,” it’s “kids,” which recasts enlistment and deployment as something done to the young rather than chosen by autonomous adults. That choice is loaded, and intentionally so; it forces the listener to picture a body with a bedroom, a backpack, a future.
Then comes the provocation: “die for oil.” It’s an accusation, but also a compression of decades of suspicion about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East - from the Gulf War through Iraq - where talk of democracy and security often sat uncomfortably beside strategic energy interests. Hannah, an outspoken environmentalist, is not only condemning a war rationale; she’s indicting an entire economic dependency that makes violence feel like a supply-chain decision.
As a pop-culture figure, she’s leveraging celebrity’s permission to say the unvarnished thing. The intent isn’t bipartisan nuance; it’s moral re-framing: if the true motive is resource control, the sacrifice stops reading as honor and starts reading as extraction.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hannah, Daryl. (2026, January 15). No one really wants to send their kids off to die for oil. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-one-really-wants-to-send-their-kids-off-to-die-141987/
Chicago Style
Hannah, Daryl. "No one really wants to send their kids off to die for oil." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-one-really-wants-to-send-their-kids-off-to-die-141987/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"No one really wants to send their kids off to die for oil." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-one-really-wants-to-send-their-kids-off-to-die-141987/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.

