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Quotes About Civilians

There were people who saw the future of warfare coming from the skies. And they always knew that would mean bombing civilians. That's what it was always about, though no one would say it aloud. You see, they thought that if you killed enough civilians it would bring a quick end to any war.
~ Andrew Cartmel
In short, Vietnam had demonstrated that when it came to deciding when to go to war and how to fight, civilians were not to be trusted.
~ Andrew J. Bacevich
Only influence there—prior to any actual decision to intervene—could prevent feckless civilians from committing the nation to wars or quasi-wars not to the military's own liking. In
~ Andrew J. Bacevich
The traditional stand adopted by the Cuban Revolution, which was always opposed to any action that could jeopardize the life of civilians, is well known.
~ Fidel Castro
The abuse of civilians and combatants has existed since the dawn of time.
~ Peter Maurer
No, the United States does not target civilians.
~ Douglas Feith
Secondly, the Government of Sudan should commit to the disarmament and control of the Janjaweed militia and ensure that the targeting of civilians ceases immediately.
~ Jan Egeland
We attacked selected military targets of the P.L.O. Around, civilians were hurt, I don't want to deny it. Very regrettable, very regrettable. We regret it deeply.
~ Menachem Begin
Israel never targets civilians deliberately, period.
~ Naftali Bennett
One of the fundamental pillars of international humanitarian law is that proper distinction should be made between military targets and civilians. That is why indiscriminate bombing, let alone the deliberate targeting of residential areas or agricultural infrastructure, is considered a war crime.
~ Emily Thornberry
The myth of violated innocence meant that the rebel stockpiling of war supplies in recent months must remain obscure, along with details about the colony's deft, robust call to arms. A narrative congealed, and with it a brilliant propaganda stratagem: Gage was the aggressor; redcoats fired first; helpless civilians had been slaughtered.
~ Rick Atkinson
September 1, 1939, was the first day of a war that would last for 2,174 days, and it brought the first dead in a war that would claim an average of 27,600 lives every day, or 1,150 an hour, or 19 a minute, or one death every 3 seconds. Within four weeks of the blitzkrieg attack on Poland by sixty German divisions, the lightning war had killed more than 100,000 Polish soldiers, and 25,000 civilians had perished in bombing attacks.
~ Rick Atkinson
When the trucks halted for a moment and GIs tumbled out to urinate in squirming echelons on the road shoulders, civilians rushed up to plead for cigarettes with two fingers pressed to the lips, a gesture described by Forrest Pogue as the French national salute.
~ Rick Atkinson
War, undertaken for even justifiable purposes, has often had the principal results of wrecking the country intended to be saved and spreading death and destruction among an innocent civilian population. War should never be undertaken or seriously risked except to protect American liberty.
~ Robert A. Taft
Killing civilians and destroying infrastructure are not typically a terrorist organization's end goals. Rather, they are a means to provoke a political reaction.
~ Jessica Stern
We were still looking upon war in the light of Victorian and previous wars," Morton wrote later, adding that he and his brother had failed to appreciate that the "nature and method of war had changed for all time in August 1914 and that no war in the future would exclude anybody, civilians, men, women or children.
~ Erik Larson
fearing a "knock-out blow," predicted that the first aerial attack on London would destroy much if not all of the city and kill two hundred thousand civilians. "It was widely believed that London would be reduced to rubble within minutes of war being declared," wrote one junior official. Raids would cause such terror among the survivors that millions would go insane. "London for several days will be one vast raving bedlam
~ Erik Larson
Britain's civil defense experts, fearing a "knock-out blow," predicted that the first aerial attack on London would destroy much if not all of the city and kill two hundred thousand civilians. "It was widely believed that London would be reduced to rubble within minutes of war being declared," wrote one junior official.
~ Erik Larson
when an MP told him that the public demanded all-out bombing of German civilians, especially in Berlin, Churchill replied, 'My dear sir, this is a military and not a civilian war. You and others may desire to kill women and children. We desire (and have succeeded in our desire) to destroy German military objectives. I quite appreciate your point. But my motto is "Business before pleasure.
~ Andrew Roberts
It is a myth that rape is an inevitable part of conflict . . . There is nothing inevitable about it. It is a weapon of war aimed at civilians. It has nothing to do with sex —everything to do with power. It is done to torture and humiliate innocent people and often very young children.
~ Angelina Jolie
India has a consistent and well-known position on terrorism. We oppose all acts of terrorism, wherever they occur. We have repeatedly said that no cause can justify violence and destruction, particularly aimed at civilians.
~ Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Since cowardice must occur at a time and place where an enemy either has already appeared or may yet turn up, servicemen in peacetime - and ordinary civilians - can breathe a sigh of relief. If you are yellow-bellied back home, you're not technically a coward.
~ Charles Duhigg
En los meses que siguieron, entrevistaría a todos los supervivientes, todos los testigos —soldados de las Naciones Unidas y civiles libaneses— y a los fabricantes de armas estadounidenses involucrados en ese espantoso asunto, que sigo considerando como un crimen contra la humanidad.
~ Robert Fisk
During the Great War tens of thousands of German civilians died of malnutrition and starvation because of the British naval blockade; the accepted estimate is that between half a million and one million people died of hunger in Germany between 1914 and 1918
~ Robin Neillands