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.

topic: Change, Uplifting, Spiritual, Social Programs, Soul Force

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

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

topic: War, Order, Criminals, War Crimes, Following Orders

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

- Ramsey Clark

topic: Peace, War, World, War Crimes, American Foreign Policy

Only the winners decide what were war crimes.

- Garry Wills

topic: War, Winner, Crime, War Crimes, Peace War

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

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

topic: War, Mean, Soldier, War Crimes, Geneva Convention

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

- Michael Parenti

topic: War, Firsts, Atrocities, War Crimes

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

topic: Military, War, Cities, War Crimes, Cities And Towns

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

topic: War, Distance, Cities, War Crimes, Barbaric

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

topic: War, Eye, Justice, War Crimes

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

source: Source: www.progressive.org

topic: War, Media, Ideas, War Crimes, Nuremberg

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

source: Source: www.pbs.org

topic: War, Thinking, Criminals, War Crimes, Chain Of Command

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

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

topic: Strong, War, Law, War Crimes, Humanitarian Law

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

topic: War, Law, Numbers, War Crimes, War Time

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

- George Wald

topic: War, Bombs, Crime, Atomic Bomb, War Crimes

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

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

topic: Fear, War, Eye, War Crimes, Tropic Of Cancer

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

topic: War, Israel, Land, War Crimes, Against War

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

topic: Children, War, Talking, War Crimes, Dropping Bombs

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.

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

topic: War, Believe, Priorities, War Crimes

The concept of war crimes is an American invention.

- George Wald

topic: War, Crime, Invention, War Crimes

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

source: Source: www.pbs.org

topic: Real, War, Taken, War Crimes, Chain Of Command

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

- Noam Chomsky

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

topic: War, Iraq, Invasion, War Crimes

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

topic: War, Men, Inhumanity To Man, Infliction, War Crimes

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

- Evgeny Morozov

topic: Military, War, Want, War Crimes

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

topic: War, Book, Writing, War Crimes

You can't use a drawing to prove a war crime. A drawing doesn't have that notion that it's proof of a reality. Because of that, you can do all sorts of interesting things in it.

- Molly Crabapple

source: Source: www.guernicamag.com

topic: War, Reality, Drawing, War Crimes

By 1973, John Kerry had already accused American soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam, thrown someone else's medals to the ground in an anti-war demonstration, and married his first heiress.

- Ann Coulter

topic: War, Soldier, Vietnam, War Crimes, Heiress

If something is right (or wrong) for us, it’s right (or wrong) for others. It follows that if it’s wrong for Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and a long list of others to bomb Washington and New York, then it’s wrong for Rumsfeld to bomb Afghanistan (on much flimsier pretexts), and he should be brought before war crimes trials.

- Noam Chomsky

source: "On Terrorism". Interview with John Bolender, chomsky.info. January, 2004.

topic: New York, War, Long, War Crimes

In November 2004, U.S. occupation forces launched their second major attack on the city of Falluja. The press reported major war crimes instantly, with approval.

- Noam Chomsky

source: Noam Chomsky (2007). “Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy”, p.46, Macmillan

topic: War, Cities, Occupation, War Crimes

As international support for Obama's decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world.

- Noam Chomsky

topic: War, Government, Self, Pretext, War Crimes

It's not that war crimes stop as soon as a novel about them is published. Literature operates slowly, it is always inching toward bliss, never quite getting there.

- Aleksandar Hemon

source: Interview with Colum McCann, www.believermag.com. January, 2010.

topic: War, Literature, Never Quit, War Crimes

Israel is in the midst of a difficult military and diplomatic campaign against terrorists. An organisation that works to prove allegations that Israel is committing war crimes should be so good as to do so with its own resources and not with civilian national service volunteers and state funds.

- Uri Orbach

topic: Military, War, Israel, War Crimes, National Service

Saddam Hussein is about to face trial and George Bush wants to execute him. Not because of the war crimes, but because Saddam is beating him in the polls.

- Craig Kilborn

topic: War, Trials, Hussein, War Crimes, Saddam

I do not feel guilty of any war crimes, I have only done my duty as an intelligence organ, and I refuse to serve as an ersatz for Himmler.

- Ernst Kaltenbrunner

source: "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, p. 5, 1995.

topic: War, Done, Guilty, War Crimes, Himmler

We want accountability. We just buried a president [President Gerald Ford] who did not hold another president [President Nixon] accountable for war crimes and that's why we're in Iraq right now. Our leaders who get us into these messes are the ones who need to be held accountable.

- Cindy Sheehan

topic: War, Iraq, Leader, War Crimes, President Nixon

I find wholly baffling the widespread belief today that the dropping of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs was an immoral act, even possibly a war crime to rank with Nazi genocide.

- J. G. Ballard

source: "The End of My War". Sunday Times, 1995.

topic: War, Hiroshima And Nagasaki, Bombs, War Crimes

Do not touch anything unnecessarily. Beware of pretty girls in dance halls and parks who may be spies, as well as bicycles, revolvers, uniforms, arms, dead horses, and men lying on roads - they are not there accidentally. Soviet infantry manual, issued in the 1930's Only the winners decide what were war crimes.

- Garry Wills

topic: Girl, Horse, War, War Crimes, Infantry

If Bush and Blair are eventually put on trial for war crimes, I shall not be among those pressing for them to be hanged.

- Richard Dawkins

source: "Executing Saddam Hussein was an Act of Vandalism". www.huffingtonpost.com. January 03, 2007.

topic: War, Trials, Crime, War Crimes

The basic gamut of civil and political rights in terms of disappearances, detainees, people who are surrendered, what happened the missing. Any talk about allegations of war crimes. Those are the kind of thing that lead to a great deal of fear and uncertainty.

- Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu

topic: War, Rights, People, War Crimes, Detainees

I do support the effort to investigate for crimes, war crimes committed by the Syrians and the Russians and try to hold them accountable.

- Hillary Clinton

source: "Transcript of the Second Debate". www.nytimes.com. October 10, 2016.

topic: War, Support, Effort, War Crimes

Likewise to Saudi Arabia, where we just were selling another billion dollars worth of weapons, and we're not only selling the weapons but we are complicit in the war effort in Yemen where there are also incredible atrocities and war crimes being committed.

- Jill Stein

source: Source: www.justicenewsnetwork.com

topic: War, Effort, Atrocities, War Crimes, Yemen

The New York Daily News suggested that my biggest war crime was not killing myself like a gentleman. Presumably Hitler was a gentleman.

- Kurt Vonnegut

topic: New York, War, Gentleman, Killing Myself, Mother Night

Assad is always a priority. That is not an issue. He is a war crime. He has done terrible things to his own people. He has used chemical weapons on his own people. He continues to be a hindrance to peace in Syria. And that is something the Trump administration strongly believes.

- Nikki Haley

source: Source: abcnews.go.com

topic: War, Believe, Issues, War Crimes, Assad

The estimated loss of up to six million dead is founded too much on both emotional, biased testimonies and on exaggerated data in the postwar reckonings of war crimes and on the squaring of accounts with the defeated.

- Franjo Tuđman

topic: War, Loss, Emotional, Biased, War Crimes

When we've finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we're in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards-some sort of climate Nuremberg.

- David Roberts

topic: War, Impact, Serious, War Crimes, Nuremberg

We should not give up and say that the situation is hopeless. There is still our conscience, there is still the memory of the victims of this war, there is still our duty to try and prevent further bloodshed. We have to prosecute all the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

- Lidia Yusupova

topic: Memories, Giving Up, War, Perpetrators, War Crimes

It was a failure of citizenship of the American people that the Bush cabal was allowed to invade Iraq. Thus, every U.S. citizen who is not doing everything in their power to end this illegal and immoral occupation as quickly as possible is complicit with the war crimes being committed in Iraq on a daily basis.

- Dahr Jamail

topic: War, Iraq, People, Cabal, War Crimes

The NATO forces will, to the extent that they have capacity, assist the war crimes tribunal.

- Warren Christopher

topic: War, Crime, Capacity, War Crimes

If we are genuinely concerned about the environment and the fellow human beings, and want to end territorial disputes, war, crime, poverty, hunger, and the other problems that confront us today, the intelligent use of science and technology are the tools with which to achieve a new direction – one that will serve all people, and not just a select few.

- Jacque Fresco

topic: War, Intelligent, Technology, War Crimes, Science And Technology

It's about the climate-change "denial industry", ...we should have war crimes trials for these bastards - some sort of climate Nuremberg.

- David Roberts

topic: War, Climate, Trials, War Crimes, Climate Change Denial