Geneva Quotes - Page 3

• Al Qaeda is not a nation-state and it has not signed the Geneva Conventions. It shows no desire to obey the laws of war; if anything it directly violates them by disguising themselves as civilians and attacking purely civilian targets to cause massive casualties.

  John Yoo

  War, Law, Desire

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• In 1945, peace broke out. It was the end of the Joke. Joke warfare was banned at a special session of the Geneva Convention, and in 1950 the last remaining copy of the joke was laid to rest here in the Berkshire countryside, never to be told again.

  Graham Chapman

  Special, Warfare, Lasts

  "Monty Python's Flying Circus". TV Series, 1969 - 1974.

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• Had the United States and the United Kingdom gone on alone to capture Baghdad, under the provisions of the Geneva and Hague conventions we would have been considered occupying powers and therefore would have been responsible for all the costs of maintaining or restoring government, education and other services for the people of Iraq.

  Norman Schwarzkopf

  Government, Iraq, People

  Norman Schwarzkopf (2010). “It Doesn't Take a Hero: The Autobiography of General Norman Schwarzkopf”, p.579, Bantam

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• Competition is warfare. Mostly it is played by prescribed rules--there is a sort of Geneva Convention for competition--but it's thorough and often brutal.

  Andy Grove

  Competition, Warfare, Thorough

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• The vote on the Peacekeeper is also a vote on Geneva. Rejecting the Peacekeeper will knock the legs out from under the negotiating table. (On importance of the MX missile)

  Ronald Reagan

  Legs, Tables, Vote

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• Somewhere along the way, New York became all about money. Or rather, it was always about money, but it wasn't all about money, if you know what I mean. New York's not Geneva or Zurich yet, but we're certainly heading in that direction. London is, too.

  Graydon Carter

  New York, Mean, Zurich

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• Our enemies didn't adhere to the Geneva Convention. Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us - every single one of us - knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.

  John McCain

  America, Enemy, Different

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• No principle of general law is more universally acknowledged, than the perfect equality of nations. Russia and Geneva have equal rights. It results from this equality, that no one can rightfully impose a rule on another....As no nation can prescribe a rule for others, none can make a law of nations.

  John Marshall

  Law, Russia, Rights

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• Geneva has a long history of hosting international organizations, which is part of the reason why CERN is here. CERN has signed agreements with the ITU, WIPO and the WMO. At first sight, there may not seem to be much common ground between CERN and, say, the World Meteorological Organization, but scratch the surface, and you'll soon find a common thread. All of these organizations have a vocation to stimulate technological innovation, and together we're stronger.

  Rolf-Dieter Heuer

  Sight, Agreement, Common Threads

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• It appears that legal positions that you have supported have been used by the administration, the military, and the CIA to justify torture and Geneva Convention violations by military and civilian personnel.

  Edward Kennedy

  Military, Administration, Used

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• The striking thing is that WHO doesn't really have the authority to do any of this. It can't tell governments what to do. It hires no vaccinators, distributes no vaccine. It is a small Geneva bureaucracy run by several hundred international delegates whose annual votes tell the organization what to do but not how to do it.…The only substantial resource that WHO has cultivated is information and expertise.

  Atul Gawande

  Running, Government, Organization

  Atul Gawande (2010). “Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance”, p.37, Profile Books

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• Setting out rules for waging war (the Geneva Convention).

  Paulo Coelho

  Life, War, Conventions

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• The United States was founded on the idea that all people are endowed with inalienable rights, and that principle has allowed us to work to perfect our union at home while standing as a beacon of hope to the world. Today, that principle is embodied in agreements Americans helped forge - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and treaties against torture and genocide - and it unites us with people from every country and culture.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Home, Rights

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• This fight has nothing to do with soldierly gallantry or principles of the Geneva Convention. If the fight against the partisans is not waged with the most brutal means, we will shortly reach the point where the available forces are insufficient to control the area. It is therefore not only justified, but it is the duty of the troops to use all means without restriction, even against women and children, so long as it ensures success.

  Wilhelm Keitel

  Children, War, Mean

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• I believe international work is a heavy task, but that it is nevertheless indispensable to go through an apprenticeship in it, at the cost of many efforts and also of a real spirit of sacrifice: however imperfect it may be, the work of Geneva has a grandeur that deserves our support.

  Marie Curie

  Real, Believe, Sacrifice

  Marie Curie's letter to Eve Curie Labouisse (July 1929), as quoted in Eve Curie Labouisse "Madame Curie: A Biography" translated by Vincent Sheean (p. 341), 1937.

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• I haven't decided if he deserved to eat bread made out of sticks or live in a rancid puddle, probably because I haven't made up my mind whether anyone deserves such treatment, though I suspect that the day a person gives up on the Geneva Conventions is the day a person gives up on the human race.

  Sarah Vowell

  Giving Up, Race, Mind

  Sarah Vowell (2005). “Assassination Vacation”, p.81, Simon and Schuster

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• On one occasion, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons and myself were due to appear at the Sarajevo film festival and were turned off a UN plane on orders from Geneva. We had to get local journalists to transport the films in for us. I tell you this only to demonstrate that festivals can be a lifeline. But, after all the difficulties I'd had in getting there, in 1996 I found myself being flown in on a four-seater RAF plane as an official guest, endorsed by the British Embassy. Ironically, the film I was to present was Mission: Impossible.

  Vanessa Redgrave

  Order, Iron, Raf

  "Vanessa Redgrave: 'I want to give people the jolliest time'". Interview with Michael Billington, www.theguardian.com. April 11, 2012.

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• The United States of course wants to follow the highest standards of conduct with regard to enemy combatants who follow the rules of war. It should and does follow the Geneva Conventions scrupulously when fighting the armed forces of other nations that have signed the Geneva Conventions or follow their principles.

  John Yoo

  War, Fighting, Enemy

  "John Yoo: National security, executive power and the war on terrorism". Live Q&A, www.washingtonpost.com. March 3, 2010.

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• Ada came from Lwów. She was a very good looking girl who was studying mathematics at the University of Geneva. For a few years I had an off-and-on romance with her.

  Stanislaw Ulam

  Girl, Years, Romance

  "Adventures of a Mathematician" by Stanislaw Ulam, Third Edition, (p. 45), 1991.

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• I think they clearly do not fit within the prescriptions of the Geneva Convention. It's hard for me to see how members of al Qaeda could be considered prisoners of war.

  Eric Holder

  War, Thinking, Als

  "American Morning" with Paula Zahn, transcripts.cnn.com. January 28, 2002.

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• If you suspend the Geneva Conventions, give the green light to anything that will get intelligence, round up thousands all over the globe with reckless disregard for guilt or innocence, you are effectively and knowingly issuing orders to seize innocent people and torture them. Any president who decides to do that and then says it was not his intention to do that is a fraud or a fool.

  Andrew Sullivan

  Order, Light, Giving

  "'Disgrace', Ctd". "The Daily Dish", www.theatlantic.com. June 19, 2008.

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• But in Afghanistan, the general rule was that since you were fighting the Taliban, which was not a lawful government force, the Geneva Conventions did not apply. And that led to a lot of excesses in Afghanistan, excesses like Abu Ghraib that were already well-publicized.

  Yaroslav Trofimov

  Fighting, Government, Excess

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• The U.S. directed the war against South Vietnam. There was a political settlement in 1954. But in the late '50's the United States organized an internal repression in South Vietnam, not using its troops, but using the local apparatus it was constructing. This was a very significant and very effective campaign of violence and terrorism against the Vietminh - which was the communist-led nationalist force that fought the French. And the Vietminh at that time was adhering to the Geneva Accords, hoping that the political settlement would work out in South Vietnam.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Work Out, Political

  Source: chomsky.info

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• The right place for the League of Nations is not Geneva or the Hague, Ascher Ginsberg has dreamed of a Temple on Mount Zion where the representatives of all nations should dedicate a Temple of Eternal Peace. Only when all peoples of the earth shall go to THIS temple as pilgrims is eternal peace to become a fact.

  Ahad Ha'am

  Zion, League, Earth

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• Saying that I am talking out of both sides of my mouth just proves my very point. Politicians would bypass real social issues by referring to my grandfather, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood, or to my brother, currently chairman of the Islamic Centre in Geneva.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Brother, Real, Islamic

  Source: themuslimtimes.info

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