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Civilians Quotes

Browse 410 quotes about Civilians.

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Civilians Quotes

“Throughout history civilian populations and political rulers have talked of peace. We have never been free of war. The soldier, whose profession is war, understands that peace must be enforced by superior military might. The certainty of defeat is the only effective deterrent we can use to maintain peace. Furthermore, we can be strong without being aggressive.”

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Author:Barry Goldwater
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“In early 1961 a new president, John F. Kennedy, was told by military leaders and civilian officials that the Kingdom of Laos - of no conceivable strategic importance to the U.S. - required the presence of American troops and perhaps even tactical nuclear weapons. Why? Because if Laos fell, Asia would go red from Thailand to Indonesia.”

IfsPresidentLeaderMilitaryWeaponsRedImportanceNuclearKingdomsOfficialsNuclear WeaponsTroopsAsiaIndonesiaCiviliansStrategicThailandTacticalMilitary LeaderLaosAmerican TroopsPresident John F Kennedy
Author:Jeff Greenfield
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“The Constitutional Convention debated whether America should even have a standing army. ... They worried that a powerful military could rival civilian government for power in our new country, and of course they worried that having a standing army around would create too much of a temptation to use it.”

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Book:Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power
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“the American public has been delicately insulated from the actuality of our ongoing wars. While a tiny fraction of men and women fighting our wars are deploying again and again, civilian life remains pretty much isolated in cost-free complacency.”

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Book:Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power
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“I investigated reported Japanese atrocities committed by the Japanese Army in Nanking and elsewhere. Verbal accounts of reliable eyewitnesses and letters from individuals whose credibility is beyond question afford convincing proof that the Japanese Army behaved and is continuing to behave in a fashion reminiscent of Attila and his Huns. Not less than 300,000 Chinese civilians were slaughtered, many in cold blood.”

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Author:Koki Hirota
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“Wars results in immediate deaths and destruction, but the environmental consequences can last hundreds, often thousands of years. And it is not just war itself that undermines our life support system, but also the research and development, military exercises and general preparations for battle that are carried out on a daily basis in most parts of the world. The majority of this pre-war activity takes place without the benefit of civilian scrutiny and therefore we are unaware of some of what is being done to our environment in the name of 'security.”

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Book:Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War
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“With all this talk about the supposed strain in relations [with the Soviet Union], there is an inference that somehow it is our fault. But we didn't kill Russian civilians by shooting down a civilian airplane. We didn't attempt to conquer an adjacent country to ours. We didn't walk out on negotiations and refuse to give a date for when we would resume.”

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Author:Ronald Reagan
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“If I have to reduce all of the laws of war into a single sentence, it is this. You divide the world into two, combatants and noncombatants. You can attack deliberately combatants, but not deliberately noncombatants. Israel acts that way. It attacks combatants and accidentally kills noncombatants. But in the case of the terrorists, it's the exact opposite. They deliberately attack combatants - noncombatants, civilians, deliberately.”

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Author:Benjamin Netanyahu
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“We're capable of understanding that someone has to drop an atomic bomb on a town of innocent civilians, but not that others have to cut up prostitutes who spread disease and moral depravity in the slums of London. Hence we call the former realism and the latter madness.”

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Book:The Snowman: Harry Hole 7
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“To confine soldiers to purely military functions while urgent and vital tasks have to be done, and nobody else is available to undertake them, would be senseless. The soldier must then be prepared to become a propagandist, a social worker, a civil engineer, a schoolteacher, a nurse, a boy scout. But only for as long as he cannot be replaced, for it is better to entrust civilian tasks to civilians.”

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Author:David Galula
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“We all must be mindful that the United States has diplomatic, civilian, and military personnel deployed in other countries with both challenging security environments and active terrorist networks interested in targeting not just our facilities but our people. One of their greatest protections - knowing that the United States does not negotiate with terrorists - has been compromised.”

PeopleDoeHas BeensCountryStatesChallengesUnitedUnited StatesKnowingEnvironmentSecurityMilitaryActiveProtectionTerroristOther CountriesCiviliansFacilityDiplomaticPersonnelMilitary Personnel
Author:John Boehner
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“Israel is in the midst of a difficult military and diplomatic campaign against terrorists. An organisation that works to prove allegations that Israel is committing war crimes should be so good as to do so with its own resources and not with civilian national service volunteers and state funds.”

ShouldWarStatesDifficultMilitaryCrimeProveResourcesIsraelCampaignsTerroristFundMidstVolunteerCiviliansOrganisationDiplomaticWar CrimesAllegationsNational Service
Author:Uri Orbach
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“The only rule Muslims know is to win. It does not matter how. All rules can be broken as long as they win the war. They can lie, they can deceive, they can break their treaties as Muhammad did, they can ambush or use terror, assassinate, massacre the children and bomb civilians. Muslims can even kill each other as long as this improves their chance of winning.”

KnowsChildrenLongDoeWarMatterUseLyingWinningChanceBreakBrokenTerrorBombsDeceivingCiviliansMuhammadTreatiesMassacresAmbush
Author:Ali Sina
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“If you are doing a piece about somebody, even if you admire them tremendously and express that in the piece, express that admiration, if they're not used to being written about, if they're civilians, [...] they're not used to seeing themselves through other people's eyes. So you will always see them from a slightly different angle than they see themselves, and they feel a little betrayed by that.”

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Author:Joan Didion
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“I am extremely proud of our remarkable men and women who serve in our military, but the reality is that this is a shrinking percentage of the American population. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a growing disconnect between our military and civilian population. At one time, we had participation from nearly every American. Victory gardens, metal collections, saving stamps and bonds-everyone did their part to support our military. We simply don't do that anymore.”

MenRealitySupportGrowingMilitaryProudVictoryMen And WomenGardenPopulationSavingCollectionsRemarkableOne TimeMetalsParticipationStampsPercentagesCiviliansShrinking
Author:Don Young
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“I believe the connection is growing stronger. Just to think that 40-plus years ago, service members would return from combat to get spit on by so many civilians. Regardless of what we think about a conflict, we must always honor and be grateful for those men and women who serve.”

ThinkingMenYearsBelieveI BelieveGrowingReturnHonorConflictMembersMen And WomenYears AgoConnectionsStrongerGratefulPlusCombatBe GratefulCiviliansSpitGrowing Stronger
Author:Lee Zeldin
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“There is an undeniable economic and cultural disconnect between many of those who volunteer to serve and those who choose to remain civilians. But what is more concerning to me is the disconnect between our political leadership that applauds our soldiers and veterans, but then won't provide funding to properly armored vehicles or health care when our servicemen and women come home. You can't send men and women to war without being prepared to take care of them abroad and give them the services they need when they return home.”

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Author:Ruben Gallego
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