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Massacres Quotes

“In 1969 the Khmer Rouge numbered only about 4,000. By 1975 their numbers were enough to defeat the government forces. Their victory was greatly helped by the American attack on Cambodia, which was carried out as an extension of the Vietnam War. In 1970 a military coup led by Lon Nol, possibly with American support, overthrew the government of Prince Sihanouk, and American and South Vietnamese troops entered Cambodia. One estimate is that 600,000 people, nearly 10 per cent of the Cambodian population, were killed in this extension of the war. Another estimate puts the deaths from the American bombing at 1000,000 peasants. From 1972 to 1973, the quantity of bombs dropped on Cambodia was well over three times that dropped on Japan in the Second World War. The decision to bomb was taken by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger and was originally justified on the grounds that North Vietnamese bases had been set up in Cambodia. The intention (according to a later defence by Kissinger’s aide, Peter W. Rodman) was to target only places with few Cambodians: ‘From the Joint Chiefs’ memorandum of April 9, 1969, the White House selected as targets only six base areas minimally populated by civilians. The target areas were given the codenames BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER, SUPPER, SNACK, and DESSERT; the overall programme was given the name MENU.’ Rodman makes the point that SUPPER, for instance, had troop concentrations, anti-aircraft, artillery, rocket and mortar positions, together with other military targets. Even if relatively few Cambodians were killed by the unpleasantly names items on the MENU, each of them was a person leading a life in a country not at war with the United States. And, as the bombing continued, these relative restraints were loosened. To these political decisions, physical and psychological distance made their familiar contribution. Roger Morris, a member of Kissinger’s staff, later described the deadened human responses: Though they spoke of terrible human suffering reality was sealed off by their trite, lifeless vernacular: 'capabilities', 'objectives', 'our chips', 'giveaway'. It was a matter, too, of culture and style. They spoke with the cool, deliberate detachment of men who believe the banishment of feeling renders them wise and, more important, credible to other men… They neither understood the foreign policy they were dealing with, nor were deeply moved by the bloodshed and suffering they administered to their stereo-types. On the ground the stereotypes were replaced by people. In the villages hit by bombs and napalm, peasants were wounded or killed, often being burnt to death. Those who left alive took refuge in the forests. One Western ob-server commented, ‘it is difficult to imagine the intensity of their hatred to-wards those who are destroying their villages and property’. A raid killed twenty people in the village of Chalong. Afterwards seventy people from Chalong joined the Khmer Rouge. Prince Sihanouk said that Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger created the Khmer Rouge by expanding the war into Cambodia.”

MoralityExtremismBombingMassacresCambodiaHistory Repeating ItselfHenry KissingerRichard NixonKhmer RougeNixon Administration
Book:Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
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“When the minds of men slip from realities to fantasies without thinking of the future consequences, then we must ponder. When the hearts of men are entangled with what though might seem great but yet, specious ambitions without pondering over the resulting footprints, then we ought to take precautions. When the hands of men unwittingly and for the sake of self-gratification find the right weapons and dexterity for the wrong purpose, then massacre and cruelties leave indelible footprints of sorrow and bitterness in the hearts of men. We shall always look back to the footprints of yesterday to say had we know if we don’t take a critical look at today’s footsteps. There is always an alternative that is better than good”

Changing The WorldLooking BackWorld PeacePolitical PhilosophyPolitical ScienceRegretsMassacresWorld War 1World War TwoFantasiesMotivesFootprints In LifeFootprints Of The FathersWrong MotivesBetter AlternativesConsequenses Of The PastPolitical TensionsSelf GratificationsTaking PrecautionsWhy War Comes
Author:Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
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“He was born in Odessa and settled on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side in 1906; his family's house had been burned down the previous October. Pogroms, massacres. America was in the massacre racket, too, Heshie observed, but they concentrated on Negroes and Indians for the most part. He figured they'd come for him once they ran out, but that might take years.”

AmericaNew YorkAfrican AmericansBlacksMassacresJewsNative AmericansAntisemitismPogroms
Book:Crook Manifesto
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“We cannot prevail,' said Walayat Shah. 'The Jehad is dead. Those who slew the women and the babes have slain it also. To slay in battle or in hot blood, that is well. And to kill men, if they be unbelievers, is to achieve Paradise. But to slaughter captive women who have suffered the harshness of war and sorrow, and been robbed thereby of all strength and will, is a deed to blacken the sun! I will fight no more against the feringhis, since God can no longer be upon our side.”

WarRevoltMassacres
Book:Shadow of the Moon
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“The standoff had already lasted five days. "It was a Monday, the 3rd of October 1502," wrote Tomé Lopes: "a date that I will remember every day of my life." By now Gama's soldiers had removed all the weapons they could find from the Arab ship. It was a sitting duck, and the admiral ordered his men into their boats. Their task was simple. They were to tow the Mîrî out to sea until it was safely away from the Portuguese fleet. Then they were to set it alight and burn it with everyone on board. The soldiers marched onto the Mîrî, set fires across the decks, and jumped back into the boats as the flames licked and the smoke billowed. Some of the Muslims rushed to smother the fires, and one by one they stamped them out. Others dragged out several small bombards they had managed to hide from the search party, and they hurriedly set them up. The pilgrims and merchants ran to grab anything that could serve as ammunition, including fist-sized stones from the piles of ballast in the hold. There was clearly no chance of surrender, and they were determined to die fighting rather than burn to death. When the soldiers in the boats saw the fires go out they rowed back to light them again. As they approached, women and men alike fired the bombards and hurled the stones. The Europeans cowered under the hail of missiles and beat a fast retreat. From a distance they tried to sink the Mîrî with their bombards, but the guns carried on the boats were too small to inflict real damage. The Muslim women tore off their jewelry, clutched the gold, silver, and precious stones in their fists, and shook them at the boats, screaming at their attackers to take everything they had. They held up their babies and little children and desperately pleaded with the Christians to take pity on the innocents. One last time, the merchants shouted and gestured that they would pay a great ransom if their lives were spared. Gama watched, hidden from sight, through a loophole in the side of his ship. Tomé Lopes was stunned: shocked by the admiral's refusal to relent, and amazed that he was willing to turn down such wealth. There was no doubt in his mind that the ransom would have been enough to buy the freedom of every Christian prisoner in Morocco and still leave great treasure for the king. Bergamo and his fellow factors were no doubt wondering just how much of their profit would go up in smoke. Yet there were plenty of zealous Christians among the crews who had no more qualms than their Crusader forebears about killing peaceful merchants and pilgrims. The dehumanizing notion that their enemies in faith were somehow not real people was too deeply ingrained to be shaken. Like holy warriors before and after, they avoided looking into the whites of their victims' eyes and got on with their godly business.”

MassacresVasco Da GamaLusians
Book:The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages Of Vasco Da Gama by Nigel Cliff
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“Atheism rises above creeds and puts Humanity upon one plane. There can be no 'chosen people' in the Atheist philosophy. There are no bended knees in Atheism; No supplications, no prayers; No sacrificial redemptions; No 'divine' revelations; No washing in the blood of the lamb; No crusades, no massacres, no holy wars; No heaven, no hell, no purgatory; No silly rewards and no vindictive punishments; No christs, and no saviors; No devils, no ghosts and no gods.”

PhilosophyHumanityHeavenPrayerHellAtheismDivineRedemptionSaviorCreedsGodsRevelationCrusadesMassacresPurgatoryDevilsHoly Wars
Book:Atheism and Other Addresses
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“"From the reign of Nero to that of Antoninus Pius," Gibbon says again, "the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections. Humanity is shocked at the recital of the horrid cruelties which the Jews committed in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Cyrene, where they dwelt in treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives...In Cyrene they massacred 220,000 Greeks; in Cyprus 240,000; in Egypt a very great multitude. Many of these unhappy victims were sawed asunder..."”

HumanityCitiesVictimCommittedJewUnhappyCrueltyBrokeGreekRomeFierceMultitudesReignEgyptShockedImpatienceDominionFuriousTreacherousMassacresInsurrectionNeroUnsuspectingRecitalsCyprus
Book:World Revolution: The Plot Against Civilization
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“I understand and sympathize with the reasonable needs of a reasonable number of people on a finite continent. All life depends upon other life. But what is happening today, in North America, is not rational use but irrational massacre. Man the Pest, multiplied to the swarming stage, is attacking the remaining forests like a plague of locusts on a field of grain.”

PeopleMenNeedsUseTodayAmericaNumbersStageFieldsDependsHappeningsForestsRationalReasonableGrainContinentsIrrationalFinitePlagueAttackingNorth AmericaMassacresPests
Author:Edward Abbey
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“I have an extremely difficult time wrapping my head around such a tragic event as the Elementary school massacre in Connecticut and unbelievable sadness for the parents, families and co-workers effected by this tragedy. We are ALL touched by this either directly or indirectly.... May hearts be comforted at such a devastating time. The world is with you.... I know I am.”

KnowsWorldHeartMaySchoolParentDifficultSadnessEventsTragedyWorkersTouchedTragicUnbelievableDifficult TimesMassacresElementary SchoolWrappingCo WorkerConnecticutTragic Events
Author:Pamela Moore
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“There’s a great scene in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre [1974] that I’m obsessed with: Sally is being chased by Leatherface with a chainsaw... And she runs into thorn bushes. And she’s getting tangled up in it because she’s running fast... But Sally needs to move slowly in order to get through the bushes - she will get farther faster by going slowly because her hair and clothes won’t get tangled and caught. There’s something really beautiful about understanding that, while someone’s chasing you with a chainsaw, you have to move more slowly in order to get away.”

NeedsRunningBeautifulMovingOrderUnderstandingSawsHairSceneClothesCaughtChainsFasterObsessedGet AwayTexasChasingTangledMassacresReally BeautifulChainsawRunning Fast
Author:Christopher Bollen
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“I can imagine no man who will look with more horror on the End than a conscientious revolutionary who has, in a sense sincerely, been justifying cruelties and injustices inflicted on millions of his contemporaries by the benefits which he hopes to confer on future generations: generations who, as one terrible moment now reveals to him, were never going to exist. Then he will see the massacres, the faked trials, the deportations, to be all ineffaceably real, an essential part, his part, in the drama that has just ended: while the future Utopia had never been anything but a fantasy.”

MenLooksI CanRealEndsMomentsMillionsFantasyImagineGenerationsTerribleDramaHorrorEssentialsBenefitsInjusticeTrialsCrueltyRevolutionarySincerelyFuture GenerationUtopiaMassacresDeportation
Book:The World's Last Night: And Other Essays
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“I hardly sustain myself beneath the weight of white men's blood that I have shed. The whites provoked the war; their injustices, their indignities to our families, the cruel, unheard of and wholly unprovoked massacre at Fort Lyon ... shook all the veins which bind and support me. I rose, tomahawk in hand, and I have done all the hurt to the whites that I could.”

MenWarDoneHandsHurtWhiteSupportBloodWeightRoseInjusticeOur FamilyShedWhite ManVeinsMassacresUnheardFortsProvokedSupport MeIndignity
Author:Sitting Bull
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“Christianity, just as much as Islam, teaches children that unquestioned faith is a virtue. You don't have to make the case for what you believe. If somebody announces that it is part of his faith, the rest of society, whether of the same faith, or another, or of none, is obliged, by ingrained custom, to "respect" it without question; respect it until the day it manifests itself in a horrible massacre like the destruction of the World Trade Center, or the London or Madrid bombings.”

IfsWorldBelieveChildrenChristianityTeachCasesVirtueDestructionTradeIslamLondonHorribleCustomsObligedBombingMassacresWorld TradeWorld Trade CenterMadrid
Author:Richard Dawkins
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“Today the Israeli government continues seizures of Palestinian land for settlements, military incursions into surrounding countries and denial of the right of Palestinians expelled by terror to return. Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office. Israel's own Kahan commission found that Sharon shared responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacres.”

ShouldWarCountryGovernmentTodayFoundResponsibilityLandMilitaryReturnOfficePrisonTerrorIsraelCriminalsDenialMinistersPrimePalestinianPrime MinisterIsraeliSettlementMassacresArielSeizuresSharonShared Responsibility
Author:Ken Livingstone
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“Women should be permitted to volunteer for non-combat service... We have no real way of knowing whether the kinds of training that teach men both courage and restraint would be adaptable to women or effective in a crisis. But the evidence of history and comparative studies of other species suggest that women as a fighting body might be far less amenable to the rules that prevent war from becoming a massacre and, with the use of modern weapons, that protect the survival of all humanity. That is what I meant by saying that women in combat might be too fierce.”

MenWayShouldKindWarRealUseBodyMightWould BeHumanityFightingTeachKnowingStudyModernBecomingProtectWeaponsSurvivalTrainingEvidenceCrisisSpeciesCombatFierceVolunteerRestraintMassacresAdaptableAmenableWomen In Combat
Author:Margaret Mead
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“In Europe itself it is not probable that war will ever absolutely cease until science discovers some destroying force so simple in its administration, so horrible in its effects, that all art, all gallantry, will be at an end, and battles will be massacres which the feelings of mankind will be unable to endure.”

ArtWarEndsFeelingsForceSimpleMankindEffectsBattleEuropeEndureCeaseHorribleAdministrationDestroyingMassacresGallantry
Book:The Martyrdom of Man
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“The god of Moses would call for other tribes, including his favorite one, to suffer massacre and plague and even extirpation, but when the grave closed over his victims he was essentially finished with them unless he remembered to curse their succeeding progeny. Not until the advent of the Prince of Peace do we hear of the ghastly idea of further punishing and torturing the dead.”

IdeasSufferingSucceedVictimIncludingFinishedGravesRememberedCurseTribesPlagueMosesAdventMassacresGhastlyProgenyPrince Of Peace
Book:God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
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“Once, BBC television had echoed BBC radio in being a haven for standard English pronunciation. Then regional accents came in: a democratic plus. Then slipshod usage came in: an egalitarian minus. By now slovenly grammar is even more rife on the BBC channels than on ITV. In this regard a decline can be clearly charted... If the BBC, once the guardian of the English language, has now become its most implacable enemy, let us at least be grateful when the massacre is carried out with style.”

IfsLanguageEnemyStyleHavensTelevisionStandardsRegardGratefulDemocraticRadioPlusDeclineAccentsBe GratefulGrammarGuardianEnglish LanguageUsageMassacresMinusPronunciationStandard English
Author:Clive James
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“Israel is doing what any other country would do, and certainly the U.S. would do. If 80 percent of your population were under fire and you had 60 seconds or 90 seconds to get into bomb shelters, if terror tunnels were dug underneath your border in order to come in and explode your kindergartens and massacre your people and kidnap American citizens.”

PeopleIfsCountryOrderFireCitizensPercentPopulationTerrorIsraelBordersBombsSecondsShelterOther CountriesTunnelsAmerican CitizensKindergartenMassacresBomb Shelters
Author:Benjamin Netanyahu
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“Perhaps a reign of powerful women is necessary to make, or unmake when need be, powerful men. Women would not waste so readily and uselessly the lives they had such care and pain in bearing. Why should they submit to the massacre of the innocent, one generation after another ... and allow them to be brought up as live-stock for the inevitable killing?”

MenNeedsShouldCarePainPowerfulGenerationsWasteKillingInnocentInevitableSubmitReignMen WomenPowerful WomenMassacresPowerful Man
Author:Natalie Clifford Barney
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“We should be wary what persecution we raise against the living labors of public men, how we spill that seasoned life of man, preserved and stored up in books, since we see a kind of homicide may be thus committed, sometimes a martyrdom; and if it extend to the whole impression, a kind of massacre, whereof the execution ends not in the slaying of an elemental life, but strikes at the ethereal and fifth essence, the breath of reason itself; slays an immortality rather than a life.”

IfsMenShouldKindMayBookEndsSometimesReasonWholeLaborEssenceBreathsRaisesCriticsCommittedStrikesImpressionImmortalityExecutionPersecutionFifthSpillsMartyrdomMassacresElementalsHomicideEtherealSlaying
Book:The Portable Milton
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“The bloody massacre in Bangladesh quickly covered over the memory of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the assassination of Allende drowned out the groans of Bangladesh, the war in the Sinai Desert made people forget Allende, the Cambodian massacre made people forget Sinai, and so on and so forth until ultimately everyone lets everything be forgotten.”

PeopleMadeWarMemoriesForgetForgottenDesertCoveredBloodyInvasionAssassinationMassacresBangladeshSinaiCzechoslovakia
Author:Milan Kundera
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“From May until October, the Ottoman Government pursued methodically a plan of extermination far more hellish than the worst possible massacre. Orders for deportation of the entire Armenian population to Mesopotamia were dispatched to every province of Asia Minor. These orders were explicit and detailed. No hamlet was too insignificant to be missed. The news was given by town criers that every Armenian was to be ready to leave at a certain hour for an unknown destination.”

MayGovernmentCertainOrderGivenHoursPlansWorstReadyNewsTownsPopulationDestinationGenocideMinorsAsiaInsignificantPursuedOctoberProvincesExplicitMassacresExterminationArmeniansDeportationArmenian GenocideOttomansMesopotamiaReady To Leave
Author:Herbert Adams Gibbons
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“The massacres are the result of a policy which, as far as can be ascertained, has been entertained for some considerable time by the gang of unscrupulous adventurers who are now in possession of the Government of the Turkish Empire. They hesitated to put it in practice until they thought the favorable moment had come, and that moment seems to have arrived about the month of April.”

Has BeensMomentsSeemsGovernmentResultsPracticePolicyMonthsPossessionEmpiresThat MomentGenocideGangAprilTurkishAdventurerMassacresArmeniansArmeniaArmenian Genocide
Author:James Bryce
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“We join Armenians around the world as we remember the terrible massacres suffered in 1915-1923 at the hands of the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. The United States responded to this crime against humanity by leading diplomatic and private relief efforts.”

WorldStatesHandsRememberHumanityUnitedEffortUnited StatesCrimeTerribleAround The WorldReliefEmpiresGenocideRulersDiplomaticMassacresArmeniansCrimes Against HumanityArmeniaArmenian GenocideOttomansOttoman Empire
Author:George H. W. Bush
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“Speaker, with mixed emotions we mark the 50th anniversary of the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people. In taking notice of the shocking events in 1915, we observe this anniversary with sorrow in recalling the massacres of Armenians and with pride in saluting those brave patriots who survived to fight on the side of freedom during World War I.”

PeopleWorldWarFightingSidesEmotionEventsPrideSorrowMarkBraveWar Of The WorldsGenocideSpeakersWorld War IPatriotSurvivedShockingTurkishMassacresArmeniansArmeniaArmenian GenocideMixed Emotions50th Anniversary
Author:Gerald R. Ford
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“The association of Mount Ararat and Noah, the staunch Christians who were massacred periodically by the Mohammedan Turks, and the Sunday School collections over fifty years for alleviating their miseries-all cumulate to impress the name Armenia on the front of the American mind.”

YearsMindSchoolChristianNamesFrontsMiseryFiftyCollectionsSundayGenocideAssociationImpressMassacresSunday SchoolArmeniansArmeniaArmenian Genocide
Book:Memoirs: Years of adventure, 1874-1920
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“... the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it ... the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense.”

WorldMeanWarDealsCrimeHorrorNonsenseGenocideTurkeysTurkishMassacresMischievousArmeniansArmeniaArmenian GenocideFailure To Act
Book:Letters: The days of Armageddon, 1909-1914
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