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Quotes for our Times
The vast majority of quotes here are
ones we strongly agree with. A few, however, are pronouncements
we vehemently disagree with, but are included because they
speak volumes about the mindset of the speaker (e.g., Greg
Abbott, David Ben-Gurion, Tony Blair, George W. Bush, Paul
Clement, Tom DeLay, Lou Dobbs, Allen Dulles, T.S. Ellis,
David Manning, Bernard Marcus, Rupert Murdoch, Colin Powell,
Antonin Scalia, John C. Yoo). We trust the difference will
be obvious.
(continually updated; if you find any errors or typos,
please send a polite e-mail to tango_poet@hotmail.com)
1 Maccabees (from the Old Testament Apocrypha)
"Fear
not then the words of a sinful man: for his glory shall
be dung and worms. Today he shall be lifted up, and tomorrow
he shall not be found, because he is returned to dust, and
his thought is come to nothing."
1945 Nuremberg Charter
"To initiate
a war of aggression…is not only an international crime,
it is the supreme international crime, differing only from
other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated
evil of the whole."
Ali Abbas (former prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq, describing his
treatment by U.S. military)
"They
shit on us, used dogs against us, used electricity, and
starved us."
Edward Abbey (U.S. author and radical environmentalist (1927-1989))
"A patriot
must always be ready to defend his country against his government."
Greg Abbott* (Texas Attorney General, in refusing International Court
of Justice hearings for Mexicans awaiting execution in the
U.S.)
"The State
of Texas believes no international court supersedes the
laws of Texas."
Mumia Abu-Jamal (U.S. Journalist, November 2004)
"there
is a system in place in the U.S. that uses terms like democracy,
but in practice, it's something else again. It's bait and
switch; it's hide and don't seek; it's actually the disenfranchisement
of hundreds of thousands, and indeed, millions of Americans,
based on their race, their ethnicity, and often, their economic
class."
Achilles (as conceived in the movie 'Troy,' 2004)
"Soldiers,
they fight for kings they've never even met, they do what
they're told, they die when they're told to die. Don't waste
your life following some fool's orders."
John Quincy Adams (1821)
"America
goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She well
knows that she might become dictatress of the world but
she would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit."
John Quincy Adams (1837)
"We have
done more harm to the Indians since our Revolution than
had been done to them by the French and English nations
before…These are crying sins for which we are answerable
before a higher Jurisdiction."
Aesop ('The Hawk and the Pigeons')
"Some
pigeons had long lived in fear of a hawk, but since they
had always kept on the alert and stayed near their dovecote,
they had consistently managed to escape their enemy's attacks.
Finding his
sallies unsuccessful, the hawk now sought to use cunning
to trick the pigeons. 'Why,' he once asked, 'do you prefer
this life of constant anxiety when I could keep you safe
from any conceivable attack by the kites and falcons? All
you have to do is to make me your king, and I won't bother
you anymore.'
Trusting his
claims, the pigeons elected him to their throne, but no
sooner was he installed than he began exercising his royal
prerogative by devouring a pigeon a day.
'It serves
us right,' said one poor pigeon whose turn was yet to come.
Some remedies
are worse than the disease itself."
Aesop ('The Wolf and the Lamb')
"While
lapping water at the head of a running brook, a wolf noticed
a stray lamb some distance down the stream. Once he made
up his mind to attack her, he began thinking of a plausible
excuse for making her his prey.
'Scoundrel!'
he cried, running up to her. 'How dare you muddy the water
that I am drinking!'
'Please forgive
me,' replied the lamb meekly, 'but I don't see how I could
have done anything to the water since it runs from you to
me, not from me to you.'
'Be that as
it may,' the wolf retorted, 'but you know it was only a
year ago that you called me many bad names behind my back.'
'Oh, sir,'
said the lamb, 'I wasn't even born a year ago.'
'Well,' the
wolf asserted, 'if it wasn't you, it was your mother, and
that's all the same to me. Anyway, it's no use trying to
argue me out of my supper.'
And without
another word, he fell upon the poor helpless lamb and tore
her to pieces.
A tyrant will
always find a pretext for his tyranny. So it is useless
for the innocent to seek justice through reasoning when
the oppressor intends to be unjust."
Aesop ('The Wind and the Sun')
"The sun
was declared the winner, and ever since then, persuasion
has been held in higher esteem than force. Indeed, sunshine
of a kind and gentle manner will sooner open a poor man's
heart than all the threats and force of blustering authority."
Aesop ('The Trumpeter Taken Prisoner')
"He who
stirs others to go to war and cause bloodshed is worse than
those who take part in it."
Aesop ('The Eagle and the Beetle')
"No matter
how powerful one's position may be, there is nothing that
can protect the oppressor from the vengeance of the oppressed."
M. Shahid Alam (Professor of Economics at Northeastern University)
"This
war-mongering by the U.S. cannot be stopped unless more
Americans can be taught to separate their government from
their country, their leaders from their national interests,
their tribal affiliations from their common humanity. But
that means getting past the media, the political establishment,
the social scientists, the schools and native prejudices."
Abd Al-Awadh (Iraqi citizen, February 2006)
"We are
now slaves, and the masters come from abroad."
Tariq Ali (activist and author)
"The U.S.
general walks into the office of the head of Al Jazeera
television channel, and he says: 'I demand an apology for
that footage you've just shown.'
So the Al
Jazeera guy says: 'General, what should we apologize
for? For the fact that your tanks knocked out those cars
and killed civilians?'
He says: 'You
should apologize for showing it because this breeds anti-Americanism.'
So the guy,
very polite, very proper, said: 'General, what breeds anti-Americanism?
The fact that we've shown it, or the fact that it's happened?'"
Kadhim al-Jubouri (prize-winning Iraqi weightlifter who helped bring down the
statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdous Square, interviewed
in The Guardian newspaper, March 2007)
"The Americans
are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than
the previous day."
Isabelle Allende (Chilean author, from My Invented Country)
"A public
official must understand from his first day in office that
any show of initiative will signal the end of his career
because he isn't there to be meritorious but to reach his
level of incompetence with dignity. The point of moving
papers with seals and stamps from one perusal to the next
is not to resolve problems, but to obstruct solutions. If
the problems were resolved, the bureaucracy would lose power
and many honest people would be left without employment."
Isabelle Allende (Chilean author, from My Invented Country)
"Our hope
that a change in government can improve our luck is like
hoping to win the lottery."
Isabelle Allende (Chilean author, from My Invented Country, on Chilean
military dictator Pinochet)
"He believed
he was chosen by God and history to save his country."
Isabelle Allende (Chilean author, from 'My Invented Country')
"North
Americans don't want violence in their lives, but they need
to experience it indirectly. They are enchanted by war,
as long as it's not on their turf."
American Bar Association
"The electoral
college method of electing a president of the United States
is archaic, undemocratic, complex, ambiguous, indirect,
and dangerous."
Dr. Daniel Amit (Israeli physicist, letter to the American Physical Society,
April 8, 2003, describing the U.S.)
"a superior
technological power of inferior culture and values."
Amnesty International (Secretary General Irene Kahn's foreword to Amnesty International's
Report 2005)
"Despite
the near-universal outrage generated by the photographs
coming out of Abu Ghraib, and the evidence suggesting that
such practices are being applied to other prisoners held
by the USA in Afghanistan, Guantánamo and elsewhere,
neither the US administration nor the US Congress has called
for a full and independent investigation.
"Instead,
the US government has gone to great lengths to restrict
the application of the Geneva Conventions and to 're-define'
torture. It has sought to justify the use of coercive interrogation
techniques, the practice of holding 'ghost detainees' (people
in unacknowledged incommunicado detention) and the 'rendering'
or handing over of prisoners to third countries known to
practise torture. The detention facility at Guantánamo
Bay has become the gulag of our times, entrenching the practice
of arbitrary and indefinite detention in violation of international
law. Trials by military commissions have made a mockery
of justice and due process."
Kofi Annan (U.N. Secretary General, September 2004)
"The U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the
U.N. Charter."
Kofi Annan (U.N. Secretary General, U.N. Report entitled Protecting
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms While Countering Terrorism)
"while
states have the duty to protect their citizens against terrorism,
counter-terrorist measures must be in conformity with international
human-rights-, humanitarian-, and refugee law."
Anonymous
"If you
kill one person, it's murder. If you kill a hundred thousand,
it's foreign policy."
Anonymous
"politicians
use statistics like a drunk uses a lamppost -- more for
support than illumination."
Anonymous
"Democracy
is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner."
Anonymous (2004)
"let's
all get together and show each other our support for the
candidate of our choice...If you support the policies and
character of John Kerry, please drive with your headlights
on during the day. If you support George W. Bush, please
drive with your headlights off at night."
Anonymous
- 9/11 Widow, letter to journalist Bill Moyers (2004)
"since I lost my husband on 9/11,
not only our family's world but the whole world seems to
have gotten even worse than that tragic day.
On 9/11, my husband was not on duty.
He was home with me having coffee…But my Charlie took off
like a lightning bolt to be with his men from the special
operations command…
If anything happens in the firehouse
at any time, even if the captain isn't on duty and is on
vacation, that captain is responsible for everything that
goes on there, 24/7. Why then are the people in Washington
responsible for nothing? Why do they pass the blame for
what happened that day, for the failure of the system, for
the torture at Abu Ghraib, for sending young soldiers into
an immoral war, under-equipped, under-trained, and under-protected?
Why is there no leadership?"
Anonymous
- British activist leaving a message for British Prime Minister,
Tony Blair (2005)
"Kerosene, when it burns, reaches
a maximum temperature of 1,700 degrees Farenheit. To melt
steel, you need 2,770 degrees Farenheit. So please explain
how the aviation fuel from the aircraft that crashed into
the World Trade Center towers brought the towers down. If
you talk to any self-respecting physicist, architect, anyone,
they will tell you it's impossible."
Anonymous - detainee at U.S. prison in Kabul, Afghanistan (2005)
"The CIA
worked on people, including me, day and night. Plenty lost
their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against
the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off."
Anonymous
- former governor of region in Iraq bordering Syria (May
2005)
"The Americans were bombing whole villages
and saying they were only after the foreigners. An AK-47
can't distinguish between a terrorist and a tribesman, so
how could a missile or tank?"
Anonymous* - former high-level U.S. intelligence official (January 2005)
"Do you
remember the right-wing execution squads in El Salvador?
We founded them and we financed them. The objective now
is to recruit locals in any area we want. And we aren't
going to tell Congress about it."
Anonymous - former judge on the Superior Court of New Jersey
"The very
core of American history, law and culture condemns the ideas
of punishment before trial, denial of due process, and secret
government by fiat. Who is an enemy combatant today? It
can be anyone the president wants. And that is terrifying."
Anonymous - former U.S. State Department lawyer (February 2005)
"There
is no such thing as a noncovered person under the Geneva
Conventions…The protocols cover everything from world wars
to local rebellions."
Anonymous - German interviewee, reflecting on 1930s Germany (quoted
in They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945
by Milton Mayer)
"The world
you live in – your nation, your people – is not the world
you were in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched,
all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes,
the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But
the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the
lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed.
Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people
who hate and fear do not even know it themselves."
Anonymous - German scholar, reflecting on 1930s Germany (quoted in
They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945
by Milton Mayer)
"Nazism...kept
us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated,
yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the 'national enemies,'
without and within, that we had no time to think about these
dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all
around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who
wants to think?
"To live
in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it
- please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater
degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had
ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so
inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,'
that, unless one were detached from the whole process from
the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing
was in principle, what all these 'little measures' that
no 'patriotic German' could resent must some day lead to,
one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer
in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his
head."
"Once
the war began, resistance, protest, criticism, complaint,
all carried with them a multiplied likelihood of the greatest
punishment. Mere lack of enthusiasm, or failure to show
it in public, was 'defeatism.' You assumed that there were
lists of those who would be 'dealt with' later, after the
victory. Goebbels was very clever here, too. He continually
promised a 'victory orgy' to 'take care of' those who thought
that their "treasonable attitude" had escaped
notice...
"Once
the war began, the government could do anything 'necessary'
to win it; so it was with the 'final solution' of the Jewish
problem, which the Nazis always talked about but never dared
undertake, not even the Nazis, until war and its 'necessities'
gave them the knowledge that they could get away with it."
Anonymous - historian analyzing the call (championed by Thomas Jefferson) for separation of church and state
"It essentially says that
inside each of us, inside me, inside you, there's this kernel
or core of something sacred, something that cannot be violated,
something that cannot be coerced or tampered with by the
state, by the Government, by institutions of any sort. And
that's our essence, and that essence is extremely powerful.
If we can protect that essence and allow it to voluntarily
express itself to the world it's the single most powerful
force in human history."
Anonymous -
Pentagon official speaking to Dr. Helen Caldicott
"Our mission in the Pentagon is to destroy
property and kill people."
Anonymous
- protestor interviewed on documentary 'Preventive Warriors'
(released Summer 2004)
"The real pre-emptive war they have,
is against the American people, preventing our ability to
have jobs, to have housing, to develop our nation."
Anonymous
- U.S. federal prosecutor (on George W. Bush's use of designation
'enemy combatant')
"This means that when we don't have
the goods on someone, we can just export them to a kind
of Constitution-free zone. Then we can do what we like with
them."
Anonymous
- U.S. military judge, addressing British detainee, Feroz
Ali Abbasi (2004)
"I don't care about international
law. I don't want to hear the words 'international law'
again. We are not concerned with international law."
Anonymous - U.S. pilot talking about napalm in Vietnam era
"We sure
are pleased with those backroom boys at Dow. The original
product wasn't so hot – if the gooks were quick they could
scrape it off. So the boys started adding polystyrene…now
it sticks like shit to a blanket! But then if the gooks
jumped under water it stopped burning, so they started adding
Willie Peter [white phosphorous] so's to make it burn better.
It'll even burn under water now. And just one drop is enough…it'll
keep on burning right down to the bone so they die anyway
from phosphorous poisoning."
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
"A tyrannical
government...is dedicated not to the common good, but to
the private good of a ruler."
Hannah Arendt
"Although
tyranny, because it needs no consent may successfully rule
over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys
first of all the national institutions of its own people."
Aristotle (Politics)
"it is
part [of the nature of tyranny] to see to it that nothing
is kept hidden of that which any subject says or does, but
that everywhere he will be spied upon."
Aristotle (Politics)
"it is
part of these tyrannical measures, to keep the subjects
poor…so that they will be occupied with earning their
livelihood and will have neither leisure nor opportunity
to engage in conspiratorial acts."
Aristotle (Politics)
"the tyrant
is inclined constantly to foment wars."
John Ashcroft* (former U.S. Attorney General, November 2004)
"Courts
are not equipped to execute the law."
Uri Averny
"It's
much easier to have one's picture taken in the uniform of
a glorious victor, with a background of army extras, than
to steer the ship of state."
Theresa Aviles (Bronx police clerk, August 2004)
"I work
for the police department, and I see a lot of things that
I shouldn't talk about, but what I will say is that what
happens depends on who you are and where you are – it has
nothing to do with guilt and innocence."
Dima Tahboub Ayyoub
(wife of Tarek Ayyoub, Al Jazeera correspondent killed
by U.S. military in Baghdad, 2003)
"Please, my husband died trying
to reveal the truth to the world. Please do not conceal
it for any conditions. Not for the public opinion, not for
the American people, not for the American policy, not for
the British policy. Please be honest only for this time.
For the sake of all those people who died: innocent people,
not military, not militia, not people in the army. Please
tell the truth, only this once."
Francis Bacon
"If we
do not maintain Justice, Justice will not maintain us."
Francis Bacon
"Upon
the breaking and shivering of a great state and empire,
you may be sure to have wars."
Joe Bageant
"I often find myself sobbing on
the steps of a madhouse called America."
Randall Balmer
(Chronicle of Higher Education, June 23, 2006)
"the chicanery, the bullying, and
the flouting of the rule of law that emanates from the nation's
capital these days make Richard Nixon look like a fraternity
prankster."
Randall Balmer
(Chronicle of Higher Education, June 23, 2006)
"surely no-one who calls himself
a child of God or who professes to hear 'fetal screams'
could possibly countenance the use of torture."
Randall Balmer
(Chronicle of Higher Education, June 23, 2006)
"Religion functions best outside
the political order, and often as a challenge to the political
order."
Donald L. Barlett and James
B. Steele
(Time Magazine, Feb. 7, 2000)
"When
powerful interests shower Washington with millions in campaign
contributions, they often get what they want. But it's ordinary
citizens and firms that pay the price, and most of them
never see it coming.
"This
is what happens if you don't contribute to their campaigns
or spend generously on lobbying. You pick up a disproportionate
share of America's tax bill. You pay higher prices for a
broad range of products from peanuts to prescriptions. You
pay taxes that others in a similar situation have been excused
from paying. You're compelled to abide by laws while others
are granted immunity from them. You must pay debts that
you incur while others do not. You're barred from writing
off on your tax returns some of the money spent on necessities
while others deduct the cost of their entertainment. You
must run your business by one set of rules, while the government
creates another set for your competitors.
"In contrast,
the fortunate few who contribute to the right politicians
and hire the right lobbyists enjoy all the benefits of their
special status. Make a bad business deal; the government
bails them out. If they want to hire workers at below market
wages, the government provides the means to do so. If they
want more time to pay their debts, the government gives
them an extension. If they want immunity from certain laws,
the government gives it. If they want to ignore rules their
competition must comply with, the government gives its approval.
If they want to kill legislation that is intended for the
public, it gets killed."
Peter Barnes (commenting on The Divine Right of Capital by Marjorie
Kelly, onthecommons.org, Sept. 25, 2005)
"if anything
is divine, it should be those things we inherit together
and must pass on, undiminished, to future generations. Protection
of these shared assets should trump transient private gain.
Broad benefit should trump narrow benefit. The commons should
trump capital. And this should be written into law.
"Let me
suggest an historical perspective here. It makes sense that,
during the past 300 years or so, capital held the divine
right. Goods and services were scarce; nature was abundant.
But now the see-saw has tipped. Today the problem in advanced
economies isn't the scarcity of goods and services, or of
capital. It's the scarcity of nature, equity, time and quiet.
So it makes historic sense that we shift the divine right
to the commons…
"The democratic
counterpart of divine right is the notion of birthrights…
"If we
were to analyze the growth of American birthrights, we'd
see a series of waves. The first wave consisted of rights
against the state. The second included rights against discrimination
based on race, nationality, gender or sexual orientation.
The third wave - which, historically speaking, is just beginning
- consists of rights not against things, but for things.
These might be thought of as rights to pursue happiness.
Among those already established are the rights to receive
free public education, bargain collectively for wages and
be financially secure in old age.
"Where
the third wave goes from here is of course speculative.
My bet is it will embrace the rights to decent health care
throughout life, to a certain amount of start-up capital
at the beginning of adulthood, and to an equal share of
income from common wealth. Let me briefly expand on the
last two.
"The board
game Monopoly is a quintessential simulacrum of capitalism:
players compete against each other to acquire property,
build monopolies and collect rent. But the board game has
two features - birthrights, really - currently lacking in
American capitalism: all players start with the same amount
of capital, and all receive $200 each time they circle the
board. Absent these features, the game would egregiously
lack fairness and excitement.
"Imagine,
for example, what would happen if the game started with
one player owning half the property and 19 other players
splitting up the rest. It's safe to say the initially dominant
player would quickly win almost every game, and the other
players would have no fun at all.
"Now recall
the current distribution of private property in America
today: the top five percent owns more than the remaining
95 percent combined - just as in our imaginary Monopoly
game. Little wonder capitalism is more fun for the top five
percent and their offspring than for everyone else."
Jacques Barzun (From Dawn to Decadence, 2000)
"England's
ally in the Crimean War was Napoleon III, the destroyer
of the Second Republic of 1848. He had done so by getting
elected as its president, on the strength of being 'the
nephew of my uncle,' and once in office had first made himself
'Prince president for life' and then Emperor. (The son of
Napoleon I, who should have been II, died young and never
ruled.)"
Barrons (business publication editorial, December 2005, on Bush's
directive to the National Security Agency to spy on Americans
without court warrants)
"Putting
the president above the Congress is an invitation to tyranny.
The president has no powers except those specified in the
Constitution and those enacted by law. ... Willful disregard
of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at
least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the
Oval Office desk and lying about it later."
Cherif Bassiouni
(former United Nations human-rights investigator ousted
under U.S. pressure, April 2005)
"The United States and the coalition
forces consider themselves above and beyond the reach of
the law. They feel that human rights don't apply to them,
the international conventions don't apply to them, nobody
can ask them what they're doing, and nobody can hold them
accountable…The U.S. has done an enormous disservice to
the cause of human rights in Afghanistan, simply because
they wanted somebody who was going to look the other way
on what U.S. practices were."
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)
"Compassion
will cure more sins than condemnation."
Harry Belafonte (legendary musician, actor and humanitarian, speaking on
Democracy Now!, Jan. 30, 2006)
"I call
president Bush a terrorist. I call those around him terrorists
as well: Condoleezza Rice, Rumsfeld, Gonzales in the Justice
Department, and certainly Cheney. Each of them sits in the
midst of an enormous conspiracy that has been unraveling
America for the last six years. It is tragic that the dubious
way in which this president acquired power should have begun
to unravel the Constitution and the peoples of this country.
"Yes,
I say that there are people in this country who live in
terror. Poverty is terror. Having your Social Security threatened
is terror. Having your livelihood as an elderly person slowly
disappearing with no replenishment, is terror. Students
who are dropping out of school because there are no resources
to keep them in school, is terror. You find people in the
streets, watching drugs permeate our communities and destroy
our young; it's a life of terror. And men who sit in charge
of that distribution mechanism, which can help the American
people overcome these problems, and refuse to do so, while
giving the rich more money than they've ever dreamt of having,
while turning around our institutions and redirecting resources
from those who are truly in need to those who are already
generously endowed, if not hedonistically so, it's a great
tragedy."
Harry Belafonte (legendary musician, actor and humanitarian, speaking on
Democracy Now!, Jan. 30, 2006)
"I have
no idea how many court permissions were given to have our
wires tapped…This was 1950, '51, '52, around that period.
Although we suspected that we were being surveilled, we
didn't know the extent of it until reports began to be revealed
and came out in a number of books…
"The essential
difference between then and now, in the face of the same
horror, is that no previous regime tried to subvert the
Constitution. They may have done illegal acts. They may
have gone outside the law to do these, but they did them
clandestinely. No one stepped to the table as arrogantly
as George W. Bush and his friends have done and said, 'We
legally want to suspend the rights of citizens, to surveil,
to read your mail, to arrest you without charge. You do
not have the right to counsel if we so decide, and you can
stay in prison as long as we want you to, until we're satisfied
that we have reached the objectives that we want, despite
the Constitution.'
"I think
that every person in the United States of America should
be up in arms, should be up in rebellion against the reality
that we face, that we are at the dawnings of a new Gestapo
state here in the United States. America is playing out
a horror theme. There are citizens at this moment who are
being arrested, who are not being told why they're arrested.
Some have been spirited out of this country to faraway places
to be imprisoned and tortured. These are realities, and
the American people had best wake up."
Harry Belafonte (legendary musician, actor and humanitarian, speaking on
Democracy Now!, Jan. 30, 2006)
"When
you see so much light, frothy, mindless entertainment bombarding
you every day and so much disinformation coming your way,
it's enough to make any citizen mentally, as well as socially,
blurred to truth."
Harry Belafonte (legendary musician, actor and humanitarian, speaking on
Democracy Now!, Jan. 30, 2006)
"Citizens
just have to understand that the first order of business
for a democracy is vigilance. It is a delicate instrument.
It continues to need nourishment and attention. And the
minute we turn away from that nourishment and that attention,
it will be taken away from us, as it is now appearing to
be the case."
Harry Belafonte (legendary musician, actor and humanitarian, speaking on
Democracy Now!, Jan. 30, 2006)
"I
don't think America really knows who we are. We don't know
our fellow citizens. We don't know the nations we invade.
We don't have a real deep and honest sense of who we are
as a people, both on the good side of the ledger, to who
we are as a people that comes from the dark side of the
ledger. We are the most uninformed people on the face of
the earth. And I don't say that as hyperbole."
Carol Bellamy (Chief of UNICEF, the U.N. Children's Fund, December 2004)
"Much
too much money is being spent on armaments, on war, on conflict.
If you just took that money and invested it in human development,
in kids, in basic health and education, it would do a lot
more for international security than the conduct of more
wars. Whether the wars are in Africa, or the Middle East,
or Columbia or Nepal, investing in war is just not a good
use of money."
David Ben-Gurion*
(Prime Minster of Israel 1949-1954, 1955-1963, speaking
May 1948 to the Israeli General Staff, quoted in Ben-Gurion,
A Biography by Michael Ben-Zohar)
"We must use terror, assassination,
intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all
social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
Tony Benn (author,
and former British member of Parliament, speaking on Democracy Now!, March 10, 2006)
"I was brought up by my mother on the
Bible, and she told me something that I've never forgotten.
She said the stories in the Bible are stories about the
conflict between the kings who have power and the prophets
who preach righteousness, and she taught me to support the
prophets and not the kings."
Alan Bennett
(screenplay for The History Boys (2004))
"The truth is, in 1914, Germany doesn't
want war. Yes, there's an arms race, but it's Britain who's
leading it. We still don't like to admit the war was even
partially our fault because so many of our own people died.
And all the mourning veils the truth. It's not 'lest we
forget'; it's 'lest we remember'. See, that's what all this
is about -- the memorials, the cenotaph, the two-minutes'
silence -- because there's no better way to forget something
than by commemorating it."
Rachel Bentham
(British poet)
"'the Art of War'…
but doesn't Art create?"
Carl Bernstein (Washington Post reporter who broke the Watergate
scandal in August 1972, which led to the resignation of
President Richard M. Nixon in 1974)
"I would
not be fooled by the old myth that reporting is about objectivity.
Deciding what is news is the most subjective of acts and
it is probably the most important thing that we do."
The Bible
(Proverbs 17:7)
"Unseemly
in a fool are arrogant lips;
How much more so are lying lips in a ruler."
The Bible
(Habakkuk 2:8)
"Because
you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the
peoples will plunder you, because of men's blood, and for
the violence done to the land, to the city, and to all who
dwell in it."
Tony Blair*
(U.K. prime minister, February
2006)
"In theory,
traditional court processes and attitudes to civil liberties
could work. But the modern world is different from the world
for which these court processes were designed."
William Blake
(1757-1827) (apply this
verse to the 'capture' of Saddam Hussein in December 2003)
"The hand
of Vengeance found the bed
To which the Purple Tyrant fled;
The iron hand crush'd the Tyrant's head
And became a Tyrant in his stead."
Sidney Blumenthal (former senior advisor to former U.S. President Bill Clinton,
on Bush administration's path to war)
"Policy
a priori dictated intelligence à la carte."
Sidney Blumenthal (Salon.com, Feb. 23, 2006)
"Bush
operates on the radical notion of the 'unitary executive,'
that the president has inherent and limitless powers in
his role as commander in chief, above the system of checks
and balances…Now the unitary executive inherently includes
the unitary vice president."
Robert Bolt (words of Thomas More in A Man for all Seasons)
"What
you have hunted me for is not my actions, but the thoughts
of my heart. It is a long road you have opened. For first,
men will disclaim their hearts, and presently they will
have no hearts. God help the people whose Statesmen walk
your road."
Napoleon Bonaparte (1815)
"When
a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they,
and not the leaders of the government, control the situation,
since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes."
William Bonner (author of Financial Reckoning Day)
"only
simple ideas can be held by large groups of people. Commonly
held ideas are almost always dumbed down until they are
practically lies, and often dangerous ones…That is
as true of democracy as it was of communism."
William Bonner (author of Financial Reckoning Day)
"As soon
as the memory of some ancient folly grows moss-covered and
forgotten, people trip over it anew."
William Bonner (author of Financial Reckoning Day)
"empires
that rise up quickly, like bull markets, tend to collapse
quickly, too. Napoleon's empire lasted only 16 years. The
Thousand Year Reich was destroyed within just four years
after Hitler attacked the Soviet Union."
William Bonner (author of Financial Reckoning Day)
"Masses
of people do not go to war because it will make their private
lives richer, longer, or better, but for abstract principles
that few can explain or justify…Preserving the Union…Driving
the Infidel from the Holy Land…Making the World Safe
for Democracy…the jingo hardly matters. But it must
be simple if the masses are to understand it, and bright
enough to lure them to their own destruction."
William Bonner (author of Financial Reckoning Day)
"It is an odd tyranny Americans
suffer. We have no words to describe the squishy dictatorship
of the majority, or the satin chains we wrap around ourselves.
Alexis de Tocqueville saw it coming 200 years ago. 'I think,'
he wrote, 'that the species of oppression by which democratic
nations are menaced is unlike anything the world has ever
seen.'"
William Bonner (author of Financial Reckoning Day)
"The major
trend of the entire Western world since the French Revolution
has been toward more voting and less liberty."
William Bonner (author of Financial Reckoning Day)
"The masses
have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence
that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if
error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions
is easily their master."
Jorge Luis Borges (Argentinian poet)
"The past
is indestructible. Sooner or later things turn up. One of
the things that turns up is a plan to destroy the past."
Professor Borrow
Darwin's theories
"provided a kind of crucible into which the fears and
hatreds of the age could be dipped and come out coated with
an aura of scientific authority."
Theo van Boven (United Nations report, October 2004)
"The absolute
nature of the prohibition of torture and other forms of
ill treatment means that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever,
whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political
instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked
as a justification for torture…No executive, legislative,
administrative or judicial measure authorizing recourse
to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment can be considered as lawful under international
law."
Ken Rasmussen Bow (2003)
"We used
to say, 'It can't happen here,' when we spoke about the
Nazi rise to power in Germany and the subsequent blossoming
of German imperialism. Unfortunately, it has happened here.
It isn't exactly
the same, but the parallels are very disturbing. The Nazi
Party took office by means of democratic elections. The
Bush administration was worse in that respect. Bush didn't
actually win a democratic election. The Nazi Party promoted
its agenda by playing upon the fears of the German people.
The Bush administration uses its terrorist attack color
codes, and frequent speeches to play upon the fears of the
American people. The Germans were taught to fear the Jews.
We are taught to fear Middle Eastern people, especially
Muslims. The Nazis formed the Gestapo. We have the Department
of Homeland Security. The Nazis used pre-emptive strikes
to "liberate" other countries. We use pre-emptive
strikes to liberate other countries. They ferreted out,
persecuted, and locked up Jews. We ferret out, persecute,
and lock up Muslims. Can we argue that there is some profound
difference because they were 'bad,' while we are 'good'?
I think not."
Dr. Robert Bowman (Colonel, U.S. Air Force (retired))
"U.S.
government at the highest levels may have committed treason
and mass murder by purposely allowing 9/11 to happen."
Francis A. Boyle (Professor of Law, University of Illinois)
"The Athenians
lost their Democracy. The Romans lost their Republic. And
if we Americans do not act now, we could lose our Republic."
Francis A. Boyle (Professor of Law, University of Illinois and author of Destroying
World Order: U.S. Imperialism in the Middle East Before
and After September 11)
"Whether
by Liberal Imperialists (Carter, et al.; Clinton et al.),
Conservative Imperialists (Bush Sr. et al.), or Reactionary
Imperialists (Reagan et al.; Bush Jr. et al.), American
administrations without exception believe in Imperial America's
'manifest destiny' to rule the World. They are emperors
all!" [Boyle's parentheses]
Francis A. Boyle (Professor of Law, University of Illinois and author of Destroying
World Order: U.S. Imperialism in the Middle East Before
and After September 11)
"today's
theft of a hydrocarbon empire from the Muslim states…will
someday make the Third World War inevitable. The purpose
of this book is to explain what happened and why - and what
can be done to stop this oncoming Third World War."
Francis A. Boyle (Professor of Law, University of Illinois and author of Destroying
World Order: U.S. Imperialism in the Middle East Before
and After September 11)
"the United
States power elite is now in the process of destroying the
entirety of the international legal order…this includes
the United Nations Charter, as well as the Nuremberg Charter,
Judgment, and Principles, all of which had heretofore been
the bedrock upon which the entirety of the post-World War
II international legal order rested."
Francis A. Boyle (Professor of International Law, Indictment of the Federal
Government of the U.S., 1992)
"The Federal
Government of the United States of America is legally identical
to the Nazi government of World War II Germany. Indeed,
the Defendant's President, George [H.W.] Bush, has proclaimed
a so-called New World Order that sounds and looks strikingly
similar to the New Order proclaimed by Adolph Hitler over
fifty years ago…a New World Order that is constructed
upon warfare, bloodshed, violence, criminality, genocide,
racism, colonialism, apartheid, massive violations of fundamental
human rights, and the denial of the international legal
right of self-determination to the Indigenous Peoples and
Peoples of Color living in North American and elsewhere
around the world."
General Omar Bradley
(1948)
"We have
grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon
on the Mount. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical
infants. We know more about war than we know about peace
- more about killing than we know about living."
Melvyn Bragg (in
12 Books That Changed The World)
"Social
Darwinism, it was argued by Darwinists, was based on a misreading
of Darwin. The theory of evolution is not a contest which
leads to a super-species or race; rather it emphasises the
common beginnings of all life and represents a celebration
of the eventual diversity…, emphasising the common
heritage, the interconnections, the oneness of the planet."
Louis Brandeis (former
Supreme Court justice)
"You can
have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy,
but you cannot have both."
Jerry Brooks (May
2006)
"You saw
my grave on television,
As a man called the Commander in Chief
Laid a wreath of flowers
And saluted me.
And he said, the killing must continue,
Soldier and civilian all."
Paul Brooks (quoted
in Onearth magazine, 2005)
"In America
today, you can murder land for profit. You can leave the
corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops."
Edmund Burke
"When
bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will
fall one by one, as unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible
struggle."
Mike Burke ('The Indypendent', Aug. 26, 2004)
"the Bush
administration deliberately misled New Yorkers about the
toxic nightmare at Ground Zero...The Bush-appointed White
House Council on Environmental Quality edited EPA communications
to remove any mentions of health hazards. It also provided
misleading data to senators regarding the extent of asbestos
contamination in the area...By Sept. 27, 2001, the federal
government had test results confirming that the WTC dust
was as caustic as ammonia, and in some cases as caustic
as drain cleaner. But the EPA never warned the public."
George H.W. Bush (former U.S. president, father of George W. Bush, 1998)
"Extending
the war into Iraq would have incurred incalculable human
and political costs. We would have been forced to occupy
Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly
have collapsed, the Arabs deserting in anger and other allies
pulling out as well. Exceeding the U.N.'s mandate would
have destroyed the precedent of international response to
aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion
route, the U.S. could still be an occupying power in a bitterly
hostile land."
George W. Bush* (Dec. 18, 2000)
"If this
were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just
so long as I'm the dictator."
George W. Bush* (memo of Feb. 7, 2002)
"I accept
the legal conclusion of the Attorney General and the Department
of Justice that I have the authority to suspend Geneva [application
of the Geneva Conventions] as between the U.S. and Afghanistan.
I reserve the right to exercise this authority in this or
future conflicts."
George W. Bush* (Nov. 20, 2002)
"I'm the
commander; I do not need to explain why I say things."
George W. Bush
(Feb. 8, 2004)
"I'm a war president."
George W. Bush (Speech of Aug. 5, 2004)
"Our enemies
are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never
stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our
people, and neither do we."
George W. Bush (Press conference, May 31, 2005)
"I'm aware
of the Amnesty International report, and it's absurd. It's
absurd allegation (sic)…It seemed like to me they based
some of their…allegations by people who were held in
detention…trained, in some instances, to disassemble
(sic). That means not tell the truth."
George W. Bush*
(criticizing elections in Iran, June 16, 2005)
"Power is in the hands of an unelected
few who have retained power through an electoral process
that ignores the basic requirements of democracy."
George W. Bush*
(press conference, April 18, 2006)
"I'm the decider, and I decide what
is best."
George W. Bush*
(Sept. 30, 2006)
"The only way to protect our citizens
at home is to go on the offense against the enemy across
the world…we will remain on the offense until the terrorists
are defeated and this fight is won."
Jeb Bush* (Florida governor, brother of George W. Bush, statement made
to retired naval intelligence officer Al Martin in 1986,
as reported in Bushwacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy
by Uri Dowbenko)
"The truth
is useless. You have to understand this right now. You can't
deposit the truth in a bank. You can't buy groceries with
the truth. You can't pay rent with the truth. The truth
is a useless commodity that will hang around your neck like
an albatross all the way to the homeless shelter. And if
you think that the million or so people in this country
that are really interested in the truth about their government
can support people who would tell them the truth, you got
another thing coming. Because the million or so people in
this country that are truly interested in the truth don't
have any money."
Major General Smedley Butler
(United States Marine Corps., speech delivered in 1933)
"War is just a racket…It is conducted
for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses."
Major General Smedley Butler
(United States Marine Corps., speech delivered in 1933)
"the flag follows the dollar and
the soldiers follow the flag."
Major General Smedley Butler
(United States Marine Corps., speech delivered in 1933)
"I spent thirty-three years and
four months in active military service as a member of this
country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I
served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant
to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of
my time being a high class muscleman for Big Business, for
Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer,
a gangster for capitalism…Like all the members of the military
profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left
the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation
while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical
with everyone in the military service."
Octavia Butler
(science fiction writer, from a novel she wrote in the early
1990s)
"Choose your leaders with wisdom
and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled
by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to
be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led
by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to
be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to.
To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you
love into slavery."
BuzzFlash.com (October 2004)
"The counting
of our votes has been 'privatized.' Republican-affiliated
companies are counting the votes of America, and we don't
have the right to know how they are counting them…
"Iraqis
should take note that when Bush talks about freedom and
democracy, he is using code words for a rigged election.
"That
is what democracy means to the Bushes: winning at all costs,
the voters be damned. What they have done in the pre-election
period is to literally make Democratic votes vanish before
they can even be cast. That is what they did with the infamous
felon's list in Florida in 2000. Now, however, their system
of disenfranchisement is much more multi-pronged and elaborate.
And like a cancer upon our Constitution, they have spread
the disease throughout the nation."
Senator Robert C. Byrd
(December 2003)
"Most
disheartening to me, Congress allowed the Constitution to
become a casualty of the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strikes.
Congress allowed its constitutional authority to declare
war to fall victim to this irresponsible strategy. Just
a little more than a year ago, in October 2002, the Senate
obsequiously handed to the president the constitutional
authority to declare war. It failed to debate; it failed
to question; it failed to live up to the standards established
by the framers. Like a whipped dog, the Senate put its tail
between its legs and slunk away into the shadows, slunk
away from its responsibility."
Senator Robert C. Byrd
(July 2004, Cambridge, MA)
"God save
the constitution of the United States. God save the constitution
of the United States."
Senator Robert C. Byrd
(July 2004, Cambridge, MA)
"Madison
and the other framers of the Constitution divided power
so that no one person or branch of government could gain
complete advantage. As Madison explained it, ambition must
be made to counteract ambition. That is why the framers
viewed the separation of powers with such importance. No
single man, no single branch of government was to be given
absolute power. No single man was to have sole authority
to decide the fate of the nation. Oh, how different, how
different today."
Senator Robert C. Byrd
(July 2004, Cambridge, MA)
"Members
of Congress, especially those in the majority party, do
whatever the president wants them to do. What has happened
to the courage of men? God give us men. If the president
says jump, they ask, how high? And sadly, too many in our
own party remain silent. Our founding fathers struggled
to escape the heavy yoke of one King George. We must not
submit to the dictates of another."
Lord Byron
(1788-1824)
"Without,
or with, offence to friends or foes,
I sketch your world exactly as it goes."
Julius Caesar (b. 100 BC)
"Beware
the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the
citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed
a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just
as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached
a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind
has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the
rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused
with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of
their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know?
For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"Of the
30,000 nuclear weapons in the world, Russia and America
own 95% of them, and they are still targeting eachother
with thousands of H-bombs on hair-trigger alert, ready to
blow up themselves, each other, and the planet. And no-one's
talking about it."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"The only
countries in the world that can blow up the world, are Russia
and America. And America is taking absolutely no responsibility
for its legal obligations which, under the NPT [Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty] says that all nuclear nations
will move rapidly towards nuclear disarmament."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"We're
on the brink of annihilation. I spoke to a senior diplomat
yesterday who worked with President Clinton. He said this
is white-knuckle time. This is the most dangerous time he's
ever known."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"They
talk about 'missile erectus,' 'soft lay down', 'deep penetration,'
and 'orgasmic nuclear war'…People have been designated
without human attributes like 'collateral damage,' while
there's a whole language related to weapons that has humanized
them."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"The planet
right now is in the intensive care unit. We have a clinical
emergency on our hands. We're all physicians to the dying
planet. We have to absolutely devote our lives, body and
soul, to saving the world."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"In June
1995, the Russians picked up the launch of a Norwegian missile
with a weather satellite on it, and misinterpreted that
as a first-strike nuclear attack from American Trident submarines.
America's got a policy of strike first and win a nuclear
war, so it wasn't an aberrant supposition. For the first
time in history, Yeltsin opened the 'football' - the football
is the computer with the launch codes so they can launch
their nuclear weapons. He had a three-minute lead time to
make a decision whether or not to blow up the planet. He
was drunk.
"Seconds
before that three minutes elapsed - 10 seconds - the missile
veered off course. They closed the computer and put it away…America
would have been converted to a radioactive cinder, burnt
coast to coast, North to South. And then a nuclear winter
would have ensued, with the earth covered with a dense cloud
of black, radioactive smoke, blocking out the sun for years,
stopping photosynthesis, inducing a short ice age, and the
end of almost all life on earth."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"Israel
is a true rogue state. It has 200 to 400 hydrogen bombs,
according to Dan Ellsberg, who spoke with me yesterday at
the U.N. She hasn't signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
How dare she not sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty? How
dare she build up to 400 hydrogen bombs, and she's probably
the third-largest nuclear nation in the world? How dare
the world ignore her? Why shouldn't countries around her
- she set the example - build nuclear weapons? It's such
a suicidal thing for Israel to do."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"Nuclear
power plants are cancer factories…I care about millions
of people dying of leukemia and cancer and getting genetic
diseases for the rest of time…There are over 3,000
genetic diseases now described, and radiation will increase
the incidence of these diseases enormously."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"The war
in Iraq is a nuclear war. They're using uranium weapons
which burst into flame, scattering tiny particles over the
desert floor…women are terrified to deliver their babies
because they don't know what's going to come out…The
half-life of uranium-238, which is used for these weapons,
is 4.5 billion years. So America right now is contaminating
the cradle of civilization. And that's beyond a war crime.
You can only describe that as evil…Over 2,000 tons
have been used this time…The American media are totally
and strangely silent about it."
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"You know
your country is run by corporations, you know they pay for
all congressional elections and for the White House elections,
but you don't have to sit by and take it. It actually is
your country. You have the power. You have the majority.
And you probably don't know, but the corporations are actually
very frightened of you, the people, and so is the Congress,
and so is the White House. So if you start exerting your
influence in the many ways that you can - and one person
can be like a Joan of Arc in this country - you can turn
the country upside down and inside out.""
Dr. Helen Caldicott (physician, activist, author of several books, including 'The
New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial
Complex,' interview with Maria Heller, May 12, 2005)
"The churches
have to get involved again. How dare they be taking about
sex or abortion when the earth is about to be annihilated?
What would Jesus do?…He'd turn on his cross if he knew
what the churches were up to now. In His name!"
Earl Caldwell (WBAI radio host, Sept. 23, 2005)
"how fundamentally
stupid our budget policies have been…Why describe our
government's fiscal policy as 'stupid,'rather than, say,
'ill-advised'or 'misguided'? The softer words of conventional
opinion imply disagreement but suggest an honest coherence
in the other side's view, but our current budget policies
are built not on honest coherence but on incoherence or,
even worse, dishonest coherence. The president and members
of Congress always insist that they are 'fiscal conservatives'
who believe in balanced budgets, yet their actions bear
no relationship to their words…I'd have much more respect
for these guys if they just came out and said: 'Look, we
love deficit-spending. That's why we waged wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan, and cut taxes at the same time.'"
Earl Caldwell (WBAI radio host, Nov. 5, 2005)
"Elections
in America are for sale: you have the money, you can buy
it. Bush won the national election -- bought what he could,
stole the rest."
Earl Caldwell (WBAI radio host, Jan. 20, 2006)
"If there
was no Bin Laden, they would invent one. They have to have
this."
Earl Caldwell (WBAI radio host, Aug. 25, 2006)
"In times
of war, nations use whatever weapons they have available.
You do not lose the war with your best weapons in stockpile.
You use what you have, and that tells you where we are headed."
Albert Camus
"henceforth,
the only honorable course will be to stake everything on
a formidable gamble: that words are more powerful than munitions."
Alex Carey (author of 'Taking the Risk out of Democracy: Propaganda
in the US and Australia')
"The twentieth
century has been characterized by three developments of
great political importance: the growth of democracy, the
growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda
as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy''.
Jimmy Carter (December 2002)
"To suggest
that war can prevent war is a base play on words and a despicable
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