Civilians Quotes - Page 13

• When we talk about carpet bombing ISIL, that's what it looks like, creating huge numbers of civilian casualties, which increases the numbers of refugees flowing out of the region, which increases the misery of the Syrian people.

  John R. Allen

  Creating, Numbers, People

  Source: abcnews.go.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• There was an assumption that aerial bombing of civilians in World War II would cause fragile, working-class people to basically have nervous breakdowns and it would paralyze the state. That was the logic of aerial bombing. In fact, it doesn't happen at all, but the logic behind aerial bombing has never stopped, even though it never demoralizes, terrorizes, or paralyzes a population.

  Rebecca Solnit

  War, Class, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• You have to look at the reality in Syria. Whenever we liberate any city or village from the terrorists, the civilians will go back to the city, while they flee that city when the terrorists attack that area, the opposite. So, they flee, first of all, the war itself; they flee the area under the control of the terrorists, they flee the difficult situation because of the embargo by the West on Syria.

  Bashar al-Assad

  War, Reality, Difficult Situations

  "Syria's al-Assad speaks: Why he blames U.S. for truce's demise, and says war will 'drag on'". Interview with Ian Phillips, www.theglobeandmail.com. September 22, 2016.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• When you use an armament, you use it to defend the civilians. You kill terrorists in order to defend civilians. That's the natural role of any army in the world.

  Bashar al-Assad

  Army, Order, Roles

  "Syria's al-Assad speaks: Why he blames U.S. for truce's demise, and says war will 'drag on'". Interview with Ian Phillips, www.theglobeandmail.com. September 22, 2016.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• We must also ensure that we have the best medical care, education, and support for our military service members and their families, both when they serve and when they return to civilian life.

  Donald Trump

  Military, Support, Care

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The U.S. military is investing in new storage technology because most of the weight that soldiers carry on their backs is batteries. Once that gets developed for the military, it will be expanded to civilians.

  Christiana Figueres

  Military, Technology, Soldier

  Source: www.slate.com

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am also full of admiration for Chelsea Manning [formerly PFC Bradley Manning]. Regardless of which side of the argument you're on, he stood up for something he felt wasn't right. That was an extraordinarily brave thing to do, and I think he was unfairly punished for it. It's a really big deal what he did, and he did it for the betterment of all us, including the soldiers on the ground, as well as the civilians caught up in those conflicts.

  Benedict Cumberbatch

  Thinking, Brave, Soldier

  "“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Interview with Kam Williams". Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. December 10, 2013.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Al-Qaida in particular remains dangerous, and there [in Iraq] is some residual militia and special group presence. There are still between 20 and 30 attacks per day, still periodic car bombs and still loss of innocent civilians.

  David Petraeus

  Loss, Iraq, Car

  Source: www.spiegel.de

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The task [in Afghanistan] is to reduce civilian casualties while still not hesitating to respond to enemies who are trying to kill our soldiers.

  David Petraeus

  Soldier, Enemy, Trying

  4 Copy quote

• You cannot use [nuclear weapons] to target civilians; you cannot use them against military targets if they have indiscriminate effects on civilians in addition to the attack on the military target.

  John Burroughs

  Military, Nuclear, Target

  4 Copy quote

• On Syria, it's clear that the indiscriminate attacks on civilians by the [Bashar] Assad regime and Russia will only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe and that a negotiated end to the conflict is the only way to achieve lasting peace in Syria.

  Barack Obama

  Russia, Way, Conflict

  Source: time.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We believe that we could do a great deal to neutralise regional conflicts. Also, for example, to continue joint activities in space, for peaceful civilian purposes.

  Vladimir Putin

  Believe, Space, Peaceful

  Source: www.rt.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There you see Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson closing a deal with [Vladimir] Putin in 2011. Two years later, he received one of Russia's highest civilian honors, the Order of Friendship.

  Donald Trump

  Russia, Order, Years

  Source: abcnews.go.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The reason we've always had a civilian in that job [Secretary of Defence] is because we really believe that it is policymakers who ought to control the military and not have the military control the military.

  Leon Panetta

  Jobs, Military, Believe

  Source: www.npr.org

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We've learned something about President-elect [Donald] Trump's choice for secretary of defense. Lawmakers in Congress intend to proper debate over whether retired General James Mattis meets a requirement for civilian control of the military.

  Steve Inskeep

  Military, Choices, President

  Source: www.npr.org

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Any of these contemporary war situations, whether civilian or soldier on either side - that's what I was interested in. The people who are being affected. Not so much the political speak at the top of the food chain, but the people who are affected by it on the ground.

  PJ Harvey

  War, People, Political

  Source: www.wfuv.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Obviously what I think Senator [John] Kerry was pointing to, which is absolutely correct, which is the essential part of the strategy or a key component or a leg on the stool, is an Afghan partner that is ready to take control of both the security situation in Afghanistan, and the civilian side of that.

  Rahm Emanuel

  Thinking, Keys, Legs

  "Rahm Emanuel, Senator Kerry, Senator Cornyn on "Face the Nation"". Interview with John Dickerson, www.realclearpolitics.com. October 18, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• So far, the official definitions of terrorism have the role of demonizing the enemies of the United States and Israel, and of sanitizing recourse to indiscriminate force by both governments that causes widespread death of innocent civilians. This double standard is built around the current way in which the vocabulary of terrorism is being used in this country.

  Richard A. Falk

  Country, Vocabulary, Government

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  Clive James

  Peace, War, Air

  Clive James (1985). “Flying Visits”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I would wager that the number of civilians that were killed [in] a typical week under Saddam Hussein was probably more than we killed during the weeks we were at war there.

  Bill Maher

  War, Numbers, Typical

  4 Copy quote

• Our mission is to speak the truth to power. We send home that first rough draft of history. We can and do make a difference in exposing the horrors of war and especially the atrocities that befall civilians.

  Marie Colvin

  War, Home, Differences

  "Marie Colvin: 'Our mission is to report these horrors of war with accuracy and without prejudice'" by Marie Colvin, www.theguardian.com. February 22, 2012.

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• There has, indeed, been very substantial progress in Iraq over the past year - violence is down by 80 percent, civilian deaths by about the same, and so on.

  David Petraeus

  Past, Years, Iraq

  Source: www.spiegel.de

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• "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.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Peace, Military, War

  "Starship Troopers". Book by Robert A. Heinlein, 1959.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  Matthew Yglesias

  Gun, Men, America

  8 Copy quote

• There is no precedent of a civilian population, displaced by a war that their leadership started and lost, claiming a right to return to territory that they failed to conquer.

  Caroline Glick

  War, Population, Territory

  8 Copy quote