War Atrocities Quotes

Unscrupulous agitators have been at work spreading atrocity stories which can only be compared with those lies that were fabricated by the same instigators at the beginning of the Great War. ~ Adolf Hitler

In the first World War British propaganda had to invent the stories of German soldiers bayoneting Belgian babies, because there were too few real atrocities to feed the hatred against the enemy. ~ Erich Fromm

Nations tend to see the other side's war atrocities as systemic and indicative of their culture and their own atrocities as justified or the acts of stressed combatants. In my travels, I sense a smoldering resentment towards WWII Japanese behavior among some Americans. Ironically, these feelings are strongest among the younger American generation that did not fight in WWII. In my experience, the Pacific vets on both sides have made their peace. And in terms of judgments, I will leave it to those who were there. As Ray Gallagher, who flew on both atomic missions against Hiroshima and Nagasaki argues, When you're not at war you're a good second guesser. You had to live those years and walk that mile. ~ James D. Bradley

Supporters of the war are constantly asking those who oppose it: Why don't you deplore the wrongs and atrocities committed by the other side? The answer, so far as I am concerned, is that I do deplore the wrongs and atrocities committed by the other side. But I am responsible for the wrongs and atrocities committed by our side. And I am no longer able to participate in the assumption that atrocities committed by remote control are less objectionable than those committed at arm's length. I am most concerned with American obstacles to peace because I am an American. ~ Wendell Berry

Maybe that was the price of ignorance, I thought, looking at the naked vagrant. Maybe Japan had to pay for the ignorant things it did in Nanking. Because ignorance as I'd got tired of hearing, is no excuse for evil. ~ Mo Hayder

It has never happened in history that a nation that has won a war has been held accountable for atrocities committed in preparing for and waging that war. We intend to make this one different. What took place was the use of technological material to destroy a defenseless country. From 125,000 to 300,000 people were killed ... We recognize our role in history is to bring the transgressors to justice. ~ Ramsey Clark

When Arthur Schlesinger Sr. pioneered the 'presidential greatness poll' in 1948, the top five were Lincoln, Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jefferson. Only Wilson appears to be seriously fading, probably because his support for the World War I-era Sedition Act now seems outrageous; in this analogy, Woodrow is like the Doors and the Sedition Act is Oliver Stone. ~ Chuck Klosterman

In California, 50 women protested the impending war with Iraq by lying on the ground naked and spelling out the word peace. Right idea, wrong president. ~ Jay Leno

The path's been set ,
The way has been pointed out to me,
I need strength to walk, and make the first step,
I need the light to see, and wisdom to discern,
I need Evil and God,
The path's been set for me to follow,
The way has been pointed out to me,
I need courage, and hope,
Time to unleash the beast, and set the dragon free,
Time to rise and defy Death,
Time to defeat Satan, and destroy God,
Time for war and violence, time to love and kill,
Time to tame the demons of the mind,
Time to cut the angel's wings
Time to show your fangs and claws to the Devil,
I need courage, I need hope,
I need strength to slit the devil's throat
Give me Satan, Give me God,
Give me death, give me life,
The path is been set for me to follow ~ Quetzal

Gambling rules doesn't work in nuclear war - everyone become looser. ~ Amit Ray

He leaned towards me, and I did what any reasonable person would do when facing imminent death by being eaten alive. I screamed. ~ Donald G. Firesmith

Many years ago I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace.
But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts us absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many lifeless bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

A cosmic war is like a ritual drama in which participants act out on Earth a battle they believe is actually taking place in the heavens. ~ Reza Aslan

Well, i don't know about you but I'm going to try everything! War, women, travel, marriage, children, the works. [ ... ]. I want to know about things, what makes them work! ~ Charles Bukowski

The boy was the sun in Coriane's sky. On hard days, he split the darkness. On good days, he lit the world. When Tibe went away to the front, for weeks at a time now that the war ran hot again, Cal kept her safe. Only a few months old and better than any shield in the kingdom. ~ Victoria Aveyard

Time is the bridge between life and death.
Truth is the bridge between illusion and reality.
Trust is the bridge between confidence and fear.
Conviction is the bridge between doubt and belief.
Certainty is the bridge between hesitation and assurance.
Knowledge is the bridge between facts and reason.
Wisdom is the bridge between intelligence and spirituality.
Integrity is the bridge between character and reputation.
Emotion is the bridge between contentment and desire.
Joy is the bridge between happiness and excitement.
Desire is the bridge between need and want.
Urgency is the bridge between action and indecision.
Consequence is the bridge between deed and outcome.
Freewill is the bridge between fate and chance.
Light is the bridge between humanity and divinity.
Infinity is the bridge between nothing and everything.
Peace is the bridge between war and reconciliation.
Purgatory is the bridge between Heaven and Earth.
God is the bridge between faith and science. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

The men who made the war were profuse in their praises of the man who kicked the P.M. out of his office and now degrades by his disloyal, dishonest and lying presence the greatest office in the State. ~ John Burns

Krys Lee has written a book of unforgettable stories, each one building on the other to create a complex, moving portrait of contemporary Korea and its diaspora. She guides us surely through the fallout of war, immigration, and financial crisis, always alert to the possibility of tenderness, transcendence, and even humor along the way. Lee is a writer who really understands loneliness, but her voice is so appealing, and her perceptions so wise, that we feel all the less lonely for knowing her characters and experiencing their lives. ~ Sarah Shun-lien Bynum

I believe that the war on drugs is a tragically misplaced use of resources - an immoral venture that produces far more suffering than it alleviates. ~ David Harsanyi

If there isn't an immediate surrender, they'll fight to take the palace." An anger burned inside Cleo's chest. "What will he do?" Emilia's grip on her hands tightened. "Had you been in the Limerian's clutches, I think he would have done anything to save your life." "And now that I'm back?" "Now," Emilia said, gazing into her sister's eyes, "if King Gaius is looking for a war, a war is exactly what he'll get. ~ Morgan Rhodes

To declare war on ninety-nine percent of bacteria when less than percent of them threaten our health makes no sense. Many of the bacteria we're killing are our protectors. ~ Sandor Katz

I had the first integrated Army band in World War II. ~ Dave Brubeck

We shall solve this problem, and afterwards Warsaw as the Capital and the pool of intelligentsia of that nation will be destroyed. ~ Heinrich Himmler

The military's own report says that one-third of deaths and casualties could have been avoided if proper body armor and vehicle armor had been provided from the start of the war. ~ John Olver

She named her cat Phil Donahue, hoping he'd greet her the way Donahue ran to the women in his audience, eager to hear anything they had to say about seat belts, war, or divorce. ~ Natalie Serber

On the face of it, no one could have been less equipped for the job than these gently nurtured girls who walked straight out of Edwardian drawingrooms into the manifold horrors of the First World War. ~ Lyn Macdonald

It is clear before God and man that the entire war on HIV and AIDS has not been waged with any degree of piety, responsibility and care. ~ Mangosuthu Buthelezi

Barack Obama is not a man of The Gut, and it is driving official Washington crazy. This is a good thing, because resisting The Gut is what the Constitution is all about, especially in its war powers, which this president is conspicuously contemplative about exercising, at least in every context except launching drones. ~ Charlie Pierce

War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves. ~ Leo Tolstoy

War is not an academic exercise. ~ Scott Ritter

The Soviet Union began by banishing God. The United States began as a community of people who wanted to worship God as they chose ... Man does not live by bread alone. Those in the United States whose desire to create a strictly secular society is as strong as Lenin's was should study this Cold War lesson closely. Communism was defeated by an alliance spearheaded by 'one nation under God.' ~ Richard M. Nixon

Iraqis will never forget that on 8 August 1990 Kuwait became part of Iraq legally, constitutionally and actually. It continued to do so until last night, when withdrawal began. ~ Saddam Hussein

They spend billions of their currency every year on killing each other, and because they invest so much into killing, they don't have enough money to run their shops, to give people enough homes or food.
They have guns that can shoot out an eyeball from hundreds of yards away, and people who want to shoot an eyeball out from hundreds of yards: yet they turn both eyes blind to the problems humanity face. ~ Craig Stone

Just imagine going to war over Danzig - such a world catastrophe, just to prevent Germany from getting a piece of territory that belonged to her; because Britain was afraid of Germany getting too strong. ~ Joachim Von Ribbentrop

There is no such thing as an inevitable war. If war comes it will be from failure of human wisdom. ~ Bonar Law

War is addictive. Indeed, it is the most potent narcotic unleashed by mankind. ~ Chris Hedges

We must quickly mobilize our civilization with the urgency and resolve that has previously been seen only when nations mobilized for war. These prior struggles for survival were won when leaders found words at the 11th hour that released a mighty surge of courage, hope and readiness to sacrifice for a protracted and mortal challenge. ~ Al Gore

So it was no cause and no country he fought for, no ideal and no justice. He fought for his people, for the children and the kin, and not even the land, because not even the land was worth the war, but the people were, wrong as they were, insane even as many of them were, they were his own, he belonged with his own. ~ Michael Shaara

The existence and increase of our race and nation, the sustenance of its children and the purity of its blood, the freedom and independence of the Fatherland, and the nation's ability to fulfill the mission appointed to it by the Creator of the universe. ~ Adolf Hitler

The Root of War Is Fear AT the root of all war is fear: not so much the fear men have of one another as the fear they have of everything. It is not merely that they do not trust one another; they do not even trust themselves. If they are not sure when someone else may turn around and kill them, they are still less sure when they may turn around and kill themselves. They cannot trust anything, because they have ceased to believe in God. ~ Thomas Merton

All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen

It was the perfect set. Theseus gave a great war cry and brought his sword arcing up toward Sheba's throat - but the monster of the labyrinth lives inside us all. She is the dark, devouring hunger that is never sated, the creeping shadow that ever plays the fiend to our seraphim, the secret rage hidden in our hearts; deny her, and we become her slaves; fight her, and we make her invincible. By now, you must know that no monster can ever be killed, not really - […] ~ Troy Denning

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Government wars aren't my wars; they've got nowt to do with me, because my own war's all that I'll ever be bothered about. ~ Alan Sillitoe

If their social institutions were abhorrent, their unwritten constitution bordered upon the absurd. The absolutist monarchs of the ancient kingdoms of Amara looked with detestation at the Shazarian constitutional monarchy. Yet this was no time to demonstrate loathing of the upstart nation; condescension could wait until after Sixto had been defeated. ~ A.H. Septimius

The morning after / my death"

The morning after
my death
we will sit in cafés
but I will not
be there
I will not be


*


There was the great death of birds
the moon was consumed with
fire
the stars were visible
until noon.


Green was the forest drenched
with shadows
the roads were serpentine


A redwood tree stood
alone
with its lean and lit body
unable to follow the
cars that went by with
frenzy
a tree is always an immutable
traveller.


The moon darkened at dawn
the mountain quivered
with anticipation
and the ocean was double-shaded:
the blue of its surface with the
blue of flowers
mingled in horizontal water trails
there was a breeze to
witness the hour


*


The sun darkened at the
fifth hour of the
day
the beach was covered with
conversations
pebbles started to pour into holes
and waves came in like
horses.


*


The moon darkened on Christmas eve
angels ate lemons
in illuminated churches
there was a blue rug
planted with stars
above our heads
lemonade and war news
competed for our attention
our breath was warmer than
the hills.


*


There was a great slaughter of
rocks of spring leav ~ Elinor Wylie

Ego is neither positive nor negative. Those are simply concepts that create more boundaries. Ego is just ego, and the disaster of it all is that you, as a spiritual seeker, have been conditioned to think of the ego as bad, as an enemy, as something to be destroyed. This simply strengthens the ego. In fact, such conclusions arise from the ego itself. Pay no attention to them. Don't go to war with yourself; simply inquire into who you are. ~ Adyashanti

What happened in America in the 1860s was a war of secession, a war of independence, no different in principle from what happened in America in the 1770s and 1780s. ~ L. Neil Smith

Being in war together may be what keeps us from being at war with each other. Rather than neglecting the battle to work on your marriage, maybe the best thing for your marriage is to enter the battlefield together. ~ Francis Chan

I am quite confident that in the foreseeable future armed conflict will not take the form of huge land armies facing each other across extended battle lines, as they did in World War I and World War II or, for that matter, as they would have if NATO had faced the Warsaw Pact on the field of battle. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf

The most certain way of ensuring victory is to march briskly and in good order against the enemy, always endeavouring to gain ground. ~ Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor