…we cannot address terrorism of the weak against the powerful without also confronting the unmentionable but far more extreme terrorism of the powerful against the weak. (Noam Chomsky from the book – Power and Terror)
…it is up to each individual to act according to moral principle and to force those in power to do the same. (John Junkerman from the Preface of the book – Power and Terror)
Hatred of enemies is easier and more intense than love of friends. But from men who are more anxious to injure opponents than to benefit the world at large no great good is to be expected. (Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970 British Philosopher Mathematician Essayist)
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it. (Dwight D. Eisenhower)
All of us who are concerned for peace and triumph of reason and justice must be keenly aware how small an influence reason and honest good will exert upon events in the political field. (Albert Einstein)
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. (Thomas Jefferson)
Genuine politics - the only politics I am willing to devote myself to - is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving the community and serving those who will come after us. Its deepest roots are moral because it is a responsibility expressed through action, to and for the whole. (Vaclav Havel)
...the US and Britain usually don't have to "sponsor terrorism" - with the exception of Israel in recent times - they commit the far worse terrorism themselves with their own military, in the name of higher principles, "peace" and "Christian/Western morals." Recall the tens of thousands of people they murdered in Afghanistan and Iraq, to name just two recent examples. In the 1980's, the US sponsored two enormous campaigns of terrorism in Nicaragua and Afghanistan. (The Bush Agenda: Who's Next? by Stephen Kaposi) - www.freedomliberationmovement.com (Source: New Dawn Magazine - May/June 2005) - www.newdawnmagazine.com
The U.S. is officially committed to what is called low-intensity warfare. That’s the official doctrine. If you read the definition of low-intensity conflict in army manuals and compare it with official definitions of terrorism in army manuals, or the U.S. Code, you find they’re almost the same. (Noam Chomsky)
…Israel is a US military base, and it’s strong. It’s one of the states that, like Turkey, controls the Middle East region militarily in the interest of the United States… Israel is an offshore base for US power. If it stopped being that, the United States would throw them in the drink with everyone else. But as long as they’re an offshore base for the extension of US power, they can do what they want…
When you read [in the media] Israeli tanks and Israeli helicopters, you should translate it in your mind as saying US helicopters and US tanks and US planes, which are sent to Israel with the certain knowledge that they are going to be used to advance US interests. They happen to be flown by Israeli pilots, but it is the US again in the case of the tanks, subsidizing their manufacture substantially and in the case of the helicopters, manufacturing them. The Israeli forces are in effect US military forces. Israel is like an offshore US military base, and the actions that it takes are actions that the US authorizes or encourages. If they go one millimeter beyond what the United States wants, a quite voice from Washington says, “That’s it,” and they quit. We saw it again, a couple of days ago when the soft voice came from Washington to pull out the tanks and armed forces from the Palestinian cities, because it was screwing up Dick Cheney’s mission. Instantly the Israelis withdrew because that is the way it works in the mafia. If the Don gives you orders, the guy below doesn’t kid around. It happens over and over. So when people talk about Israeli atrocities or Turkish atrocities, they should be saying US atrocities, because that is where it is coming from. The same in Columbia. (Noam Chomsky from the book – Power and Terror)
The value of love will always be stronger than the value of hate. Any nation or group of nations which employs hatred eventually is torn to pieces by hatred… (Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882-1945 Thirty-second President of the USA)
It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace. (André Gide)
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. (Thomas Paine)
War is the trade of Kings. (John Dryden, 1631-1700 British Poet Dramatist Critic)
The supreme warlord uses another’s army to fight his wars. (Dean Fraser)
Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. (Ayn Rand)
The physical antagonism that is shown to countries outside of [America]… will not lend to the unity of the peoples of planet Earth whilst respect, dignity and acknowledgement of individual rights are being denied. Just as in Atlantis, you have small bands of warriors who would attempt to gain recognition and who would disrupt the process that would bring about harmony within lands. Recognize that these ones have not taken the same steps in their growth process, in the polishing of their divine essence, that others have. (El Morya through Tuieta) - (Source: Sedona Journal of Emergence - Feb 2004) - www.sedonajournal.com
The US Congress actually has a record of passing laws to interfere in the internal affairs of countries around the world with just a few examples including: The "Nigeria Democracy Act," the "China Human Rights and Democracy Act" of 1997, and the "Belarus Democracy Act" of 2004. Considering the disastrous state of democracy in America, and the tainted presidential elections in 2000 and 2004, it may well be worthwhile for a country to pass an "American Democracy Act."
Focusing on individual countries hasn't been enough for the US Congress though. In early March 2005, a new draft "ADVANCE [Advance Democratic Values, Address Non-Democratic Countries and Enhance] Democracy Act" was announced, which seeks to achieve "global democracy" by 2025. The Act will give the US President authority to take punitive measures against so-called "undemocratic states," including confiscation of their property in the US, and provides funding for pro-democracy groups and individuals abroad. (The Bush Agenda: Who's Next? by Stephen Kaposi) - www.freedomliberationmovement.com (Source: New Dawn Magazine - May/June 2005) - www.newdawnmagazine.com
The terrible thing about terrorism is that ultimately it destroys those who practice it. Slowly but surely, as they try to extinguish life in others, the light within them dies. (Terry Waite, 1939 Consultant and Former Hostage Born in Bollington Cheshire)
Hatred is the vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their littleness, and make it the pretext of base tyrannies. (Honore De Balzac, 1799-1850 French Novelist)
What vast additions to the conveniences and comforts of living might mankind have acquired, if the money spent in wars had been employed in works of public utility; what an extension of agriculture even to the tops of our mountains; what rivers rendered navigable, or joined by canals; what bridges, aqueducts, new roads, and other public works, edifices, and improvements might not have been obtained by spending those millions in doing good, which in the last war have been spent in doing mischief. (Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790 American Scientist Publisher Diplomat)
Peace is inevitable for those who offer peace. (Gerald Jampolsky & Diane Cirincione)
Seldom can America have been so friendless. Seldom can it have miscalculated as massively as it did about the likely progress of this war! And when victory does come, seldom will a victor have felt so alone. (Vir Sanghvi in the Sunday Hindustan Times of New Delhi)
