Quotes from Anthony Loyd

Respect for the dead comes second to respect for the living, and I believe no man's demise exempts him from culpability.

There are two ways to die here,' the fighter concluded. 'You can die doing the right thing for the wrong reason, or die doing the wrong thing for the right reason.

Alive she was strikingly pretty. Dead she was so beautiful you could have raised an army to sack Troy just for possession of her casket

Men and women who venture to someone else's war through choice do so in a variety of guises. UN general, BBC correspondent, aid worker, mercenary: in the final analysis they all want the same thing, a hit off the action, a walk on the dark side. It's just a question of how slick a cover you give yourself, and how far you want to go. If you find a cause later then hold on to it, but never blind yourself with your own disguise. I

But if you stuck around long enough at the time, the dead and wounded piled up so quickly they squeezed one another off the narrow platforms of your memory.

We lived together for a long time,' he said, looking out of a crack-spangled window, 'we have no need to fight.' I bet he is dead now. He had the vulnerable purity and courage that would ensure he was among the first to get whacked on the front.

Officialdom needs to put you in a categorizing box, and if it cannot then it is free to make its own verdict upon your status

Mojim drugovima – For my comrades

Momilo had once explained to me the mentality of Bosnia's killers in a few short words: 'In the morning they hate themselves, in the afternoon the world.' So, Momilo, where are you now?