What is the message of "Where have all the flowers gone"?

Where Have All The Flowers Gone is a powerful anti-war song. When reading the novel And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov, Seeger came across lines sung by a group of Cossack soldiers going back to the war about flowers being picked by girls who marry the men who join the army."Sag' mir, wo die Blumen sind" is a German translation of the anti-war song "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?". The song's message is about the transience of life and the ghosts of war. It's built on the association of nature, bridal wreaths, and men at war. 

Marlene Dietrich's version of the song broke the taboo against singing in German in Israel after World War II. She performed the song in German, English, and French, and the German version reached number 20 on the German charts. 

The song was inspired by lines from Mikhail Sholokhov's novel And Quiet Flows the Don. In the book, a group of Cossack soldiers sing about girls picking flowers for the men who join the army

the symbolism comes hauntingly back. I credit various  Wikipedia entries for the above explanation. We are  probably ...In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations'" by Thomas  Hardy,  the title itself is taken from the Book of Jeremiah in the Bible. 

War, Killing, always seem the answer when nations want to cull the flower of a 

.generation. We cry Peace Peace, but there is no peace.