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Civilians Quotes

Browse 410 quotes about Civilians.

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Civilians Quotes

“In Sherman's famous march through Georgia, his soldiers left a swath of death and destruction, destroying crops, burning homes and killing civilians. Sherman himself acknowledged that only 20% of the destruction inflicted by his invasion was inflicted on military objectives. Civilian non-combatants, essentially innocents, suffered 80% of the losses.”

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Author:John Pugsley
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“UN peacekeeping operations are now increasingly complex and multi-dimensional, going beyond monitoring a ceasefire to actually bringing failed States back to life, often after decades of conflict. The blue helmets and their civilian colleagues work together to organize elections, enact police and judicial reform, promote and protect human rights, conduct mine-clearance, advance gender equality, achieve the voluntary disarmament of former combatants, and support the return of refugees and displaced people to their homes.”

PeopleHumansStatesHomeTogetherSupportRightsAchieveMinesReturnProtectConflictPoliceElectionBlueComplexesHuman RightsGenderDecadesFormerReformOperationsWorking TogetherOrganizeColleaguesRefugeeCiviliansGender EqualityJudicialDisarmamentHelmetMonitoringPeacekeepingCeasefireClearance
Author:Kofi Annan
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“For all the civilians saved thanks to the presence of peacekeepers, there have been those who were lost - the United Nations personnel who sacrificed their lives for a noble cause. Even as we mourn our fallen colleagues, we are all uplifted by their unflinching commitment and are inspired to strive even harder for the collective cause so eloquently envisaged in the United Nations Charter: a world free from the scourge of war.”

WorldHas BeensWarLostNationsCausesUnitedCommitmentHarderStriveInspiredNobleSavedThanksFallenCollectivesColleaguesUnited NationsCiviliansMournCharterPersonnelScourgePeacekeepingNoble CausesPeacekeepers
Author:Jan Eliasson
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“They fought on with a devotion which would puzzle the generation of the 1980s. More surprising, in many instances it would have baffled the men they themselves were before Pearl Harbor. Among MacArthur's ardent infantrymen were cooks, mechanics, pilots whose planes had been shot down, seamen whose ships had been sunk, and some civilian volunteers.”

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Author:William Manchester
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“Neoconservatives and the Pentagon have good reason to fear the return of the Vietnam Syndrome. The label intentionally suggests a disease, a weakening of the martial will, but the syndrome was actually a healthy American reaction to false White House promises of victory, the propping up of corrupt regimes, crony contracting and cover-ups of civilian casualties during the Vietnam War that are echoed today in the news from Baghdad.”

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Book:Writings For A Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden Reader
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“...self-important western journalists who'd given up their sacred trust to become cheerleaders for trendy causes, the way communist journalists had once been cheerleaders for the government...They were depriving the free world of its most valuable weapon in condemning and exposing the worst human scourge since Nazism: the targeting and murder of civilians to achieve political and religious ends.”

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Author:Naomi Ragen
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“Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children.”

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Author:Nelson Mandela
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“In my eyes Marlantes has become the pre-eminent literary voice on war of our generation. He is a natural storyteller and a deeply profound thinker who not only illuminates war for civilians, but also offers a kind of spiritual guidance to vets themselves. As this generation of warriors comes home, they will be enormously helped by what Marlantes has written. I’m sure he will literally save lives.”

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Author:Sebastian Junger
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“Human enhancement is now being driven by military imperatives, at least in the US, because civilian society is more conservative in its approach. It’s a missed opportunity for a society-wide push to understand and reduce our need to power the brain down for hours every day. Every hour we sleep is an hour we are not working, finding mates, or teaching our children; if sleep does not have a vital adaptive function to pay for its staggering opportunity cost, it could be ‘the greatest mistake the evolutionary process ever made’.”

IfsNeedsHumansChildrenDoeMadeOpportunityProcessHoursSleepPayMistakeBrainTeachingMilitaryCostFindingsApproachFunctionOur ChildrenConservativeWideDrivenMatesImperativesCiviliansStaggeringMissed OpportunityEnhancementAdaptiveOpportunity Cost
Author:Jessa Gamble
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“What has happened here [aftermath of 9/11] is not war in its traditional sense. This is clearly a crime against humanity. War crimes are crimes which happen in war time. There is a confusion there. This is a crime against humanity because it is deliberate and intentional killing of large numbers of civilians for political or other purposes. That is not tolerable under the international systems. And it should be prosecuted pursuant to the existing laws.”

ShouldWarHappensLawPoliticalPurposeHumanityPoliticsNumbersHappenedCrimeKillingInternationalConfusionTraditionalDeliberateCiviliansLarge NumbersAftermathTolerableWar CrimesCrimes Against HumanityWar Time
Author:Benjamin B. Ferencz
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“In contrast, the 'Old Europe' channels were showing film from reporters who had embedded themselves at the wrong end of the Baghdad blitz and the Basra bombardment. These films depicted the shattered homes, the killed and grieving civilians and the infrastructure chaos our armed forces are creating daily. Since this footage (none of it bearing the al-Jazeera logo) clearly exists, why does the Western media studiously ignore it or, when confronted by it, claim it to be Iraqi propaganda.”

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Author:David Walker
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“Think of what big governments have gotten up to in this century : not one, but two world wars, the gulag, the holocaust, aerial bombing of civilian population centers, the Berlin Wall, nuclear explosions, the post office. A wicked individual might want these, but he wouldn't have the cash and connections to get them. A villainous corporation could afford them but has to market the products. The Vietnam draft would be a tough sell for even the most fiendish businessmen. "Get shot! Get killed! Get diseases from foreign women who despise you in their hearts!"”

ThinkingWorldWantHeartTwoWarBigsGovernmentMightWould BeIndividualCenturyProductsWallOfficeDiseaseShotsToughConnectionsSellsPopulationNuclearPostsCorporationsWar Of The WorldsWickedVietnamDespiseCashHolocaustBusinessmanExplosionsCiviliansBerlinBombingBig GovernmentTwo WorldsPost OfficeBerlin WallGulags
Author:P. J. O'Rourke
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“I don't think that Israel has any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon. What happened is that Israel is holding almost 10,000 prisoners, so when the militants in Lebanon or in Gaza take one or two soldiers, Israel looks upon this as a justification for an attack on the civilian population of Lebanon and Gaza. I do not think that's justified, no.”

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Author:Jimmy Carter
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“Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children," . "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men.”

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Author:Jan Egeland
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“The decision to attack the entire nation [of Yugoslavia] has been counterproductive, and our destruction of civilian life has now become senseless and excessively brutal. ... The United States' insistence on the use of cluster bombs, designed to kill or maim humans, is condemned almost universally and brings discredit on our nation (as does our refusal to support a ban on land mines). Even for the world's only superpower, the ends don't always justify the means.”

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Author:Jimmy Carter
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“A system in which legal police shootings of unarmed civilians are a common occurrence is a system that has some serious flaws. In this case, the drawback is a straightforward consequence of America's approach to firearms. A well-armed citizenry required an even-better-armed constabulary. Widespread gun ownership creates a systematic climate of fear on the part of the police. The result is a quantity of police shootings that, regardless of the facts of any particular case, is just staggeringly high. Young black men, in particular, are paying the price for America's gun culture.”

MenWellsFactsAmericaYoungCultureBlackResultsCommonCasesParticularSeriousApproachGunConsequencePoliceClimateShootingFlawsQuantityOwnershipCiviliansStraightforwardSystematicFirearmsCitizenryUnarmedDrawbacksGun OwnershipGun Culture
Author:Matthew Yglesias
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“"Peace" is a condition in which no civilian pays any attention to military casualties which do not achieve page-one, lead-story prominence-unless that civilian is a close relative of one of the casualties. But, if there ever was a time in history when "peace" meant that there was no fighting going on, I have been unable to find out about it.”

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Author:Robert A. Heinlein
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“How much atonement is enough? The bombing must be allowed as at least part-payment: those of our young people who are concerned about the moral problem posed by the Allied air offensive should at least consider the moral problem that would have been posed if the German civilian population had not suffered at all.”

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Book:Flying Visits
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“Helpless, tortured, shot, blown up, my best buddies all dead, and all because we were afraid of the liberals back home, afraid to do what was necessary to save our own lives. Afraid of American civilian lawyers. I have only one piece of advice for what it's worth: If you don't want to get into a war where things go wrong, where the wrong people sometimes get killed, where innocent people sometimes have to die, then stay the hell out of it in the first place.”

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Author:Marcus Luttrell
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