Quote 1
"But what I like to know," says Albert, "is whether there would not have been a war if the Kaiser had said No. […] Well, if not him alone, then perhaps if twenty or thirty people in the world had said No." (9.31-33)
Note that the author has his characters capitalize "No" – like the world is almost holy. The war is painted as a series of catastrophic events, with the focus on many immaterial elements. It's not an accident that, in this same set of discussions, the men talk about whether they go to the bathroom in the same way the Kaiser does: there are common, everyday tasks in which one has no choice but to yield to (like urinating), and there are "higher" tasks in which one does have a choice: saying No to war, for example.
Quote 2
"It's queer, when one thinks about it," goes on Kropp, "we are here to protect our fatherland. And the French are over there to protect their fatherland. Now who's in the right?" (9.35)
Kropp asks in a sense, "What is love?" or at least "What is love of country?" Does it come from the ideals put forth by intellectuals or people who fight because, if they don't, they die? Is it possible to love a country? Or hate one? Are the French more or less patriotic than the Germans? Does winning this war make the winner more or less patriotic?