War Crimes Quotes

• A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Change, Uplifting, Spiritual

  Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence, Delivered 4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City

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• War crimes will be prosecuted. War criminals will be punished. And it will be no defense to say, 'I was just following orders.'

  George W. Bush

  War, Order, Criminals

  Address to the Nation -- Ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, delivered 17 March 2003 from the Cross Hall at the White House

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• The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.

  Ramsey Clark

  Peace, War, World

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• Only the winners decide what were war crimes.

  Garry Wills

  Peace, Military, War

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• There's a War Crimes Act in the United States passed by a Republican Congress in 1996, which says that grave breaches of the Geneva Convention are subject to the death penalty. And that doesn't mean the soldier that committed them - that means the commanders.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Mean, Soldier

  Interview with M. Junaid Alam, www.counterpunch.org. December 27, 2004.

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• The first atrocity, the first war crime committed in any war of aggression by the aggressors is against the truth.

  Michael Parenti

  War, Atrocities, Firsts

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• If you shell a military base and happen to kill civilians, you have not committed a war crime; if you deliberately target cities and towns, you have.

  Sebastian Junger

  Military, War, Cities

  Sebastian Junger (2001). “Fire”, p.178, W. W. Norton & Company

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• It takes a disciplined imagination to acknowledge that the less personal savageries of bombs, missiles, artillery and heavy weapons are, to those blown to smithereens, also barbaric. The main horror of what the coalition is doing is not a matter of the occasional soldier who, in the heat of battle, commits a war crime, but the steady destruction rained on cities, villages, the Iraqi people. This violence is wreaked calmly, from a distance, within the rules of engagement. The war itself is the American war crime.

  James Carroll

  War, Distance, Cities

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• You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans - my fellow veterans - whose future you stole.

  Thomas Young

  War, Eye, Justice

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• The idea of accountability in Vietnam, Nicaragua and now Iraq - the media never has that in its quiver. When you see time after time there is no possibility of Nuremberg [war crime trials], we're doomed to have it repeated.

  Haskell Wexler

  War, Media, Ideas

  Source: www.progressive.org

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• I think the International Criminal Court could be a threat to American security interests, because the prosecutor of the court has enormous discretion in going after war crimes.

  John Bolton

  War, Thinking, Criminals

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• There seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes.

  Navi Pillay

  Strong, War, Law

  "U.N. launches probe into alleged Israeli crimes in Gaza". www.reuters.com. July 23, 2014.

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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.

  Benjamin B. Ferencz

  War, Numbers, Law

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• Dropping those atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a war crime.

  George Wald

  War, Hiroshima And Nagasaki, Bombs

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• For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured-disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui-in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable.

  Henry Miller

  Fear, War, Eye

  Henry Miller, John Calder (1985). “A Henry Miller reader”, Riverrun Pr

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• If somebody here in America is against war crime and against stealing lands from Palestinians by Jews, he's already not allowed into Israel.

  Udi Aloni

  War, Israel, Land

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• We've been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people. It's been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes.

  Cornel West

  Children, War, Talking

  "Cornel West: Obama is a ‘war criminal’ who has killed ‘over 200 children’". www.rawstory.com. February 15, 2013.

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• I believe the United States should make the protection of Syrian civilians from war crimes and crimes against humanity a higher priority.

  Bob Casey, Jr.

  War, Believe, Priorities

  "Democratic Senator Urges White House to do More on Syria" by Ali Weinberg, abcnews.go.com. September 22, 2015.

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• The concept of war crimes is an American invention.

  George Wald

  War, Crime, Invention

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• The way the Statute of Rome is written, responsibility for war crimes can be taken all the way up the chain of command. This is the sort of investigation that some people who live in Fairyland might like to undertake, but which bears no relationship at all to conditions in the real world.

  John Bolton

  Real, War, Taken

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• The invasion of Iraq was simply a war crime. Straight-out war crime.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Iraq, Invasion

  "On the Election". "Real Time" with Bill Maher, chomsky.info. November 10, 2004.

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• As long as there is unemployment, war, crime and all things that go to the infliction of man's inhumanity to man, regardless - there is much to be done, and people need to work together.

  Rosa Parks

  War, Men, Inhumanity To Man

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• Military commanders do not want to be tried for war crimes, even if those crimes are committed online.

  Evgeny Morozov

  Military, War, Want

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• To avoid a future of war, crime, and bankruptcy, the individual must begin to plan his own destiny, and the best source for the necessary information comes down to us through the writings of the ancients. The greatest knowledge of all time should be available ... in a book that would be a monument, not merely a coffin.

  Manly Hall

  War, Book, Writing

  "The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Diamond Jubilee Edition)". Book by Manly P. Hall, 1988.

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• I think the International Criminal Court could be a threat to American security interests, because the prosecutor of the court has enormous discretion in going after war crimes. And the way the Statute of Rome is written, responsibility for war crimes can be taken all the way up the chain of command. This is the sort of investigation that some people who live in Fairyland might like to undertake, but which bears no relationship at all to conditions in the real world.

  John Bolton

  Real, War, Taken

  Source: www.pbs.org

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