“I know what I’m talking about when I talk about war, and it’s the most disgusting thing that you could ever think of. And I’ve also noticed with every single war, it’s been declared by men who were too old to go, and it’s made me suspicious.”
-Michael Caine
Patrick F. Clarkin, Ph.D. 
Much as I love Michael Caine’s acting and his films (and Kipling’s poetry), Caine has said some bizarre things over the last decade. He was most actively ignorant in promoting the decision for the UK to leave the EU, appealing to the worst quasi-racial instincts of the British working class — difficult to forgive.
I’m not sure if most declarations of war have been made by men too old to fight — Hitler was 50 in 1939. (Okay, Churchill was 65, and he declared first.) Anyway, the worst wars of this and the previous century were all undeclared — the question of age of the declarer is therefore rather irrelevant.
I also like Tennyson’s poetry — although it must be set in its time to be appreciated rather than scorned. That seems more relevant to the current conflict in Ukraine.