Peter Maurer Quotes
Conflicts are increasingly causing devastation in densely populated urban centres rather than open battlefields, creating a host of new problems through the cumulative impact from the destruction of vital services like water and electricity.
Maurer, Peter. "War in cities: What is at stake?" International Committee of the Red Cross, 4 Apr. 2017.
60,000 English men, women, and children had been killed by German terror bombing of London and other English cities. The policy had been to retaliate and bomb German population centers. Over 4 million British homes had been destroyed by the blitz and Churchill was becoming concerned that when the Allies would occupy Germany shortly, there would be no German housing left for the civilian population much less for the Allied occupying forces. Churchill’s Air Attaché persuaded him NOT to send the memorandum with it’s references to the terror bombing in retaliation. The memorandum was rewritten with the references to “terror” removed. The bombing of cities did stop as a result.
Mahathir, in his moral assessment, fails to come to grips with the fact that the Coalition forces in their Afghan and Iraq activities attempt to kill and injure as few people as possible to accomplish their objective. The terrorists attempt to kill and injure as many people as possible. In the September 11 attack, the buildings could have been attacked late at night so there would be few casualties, and in Bali they could have bombed the facility after it had closed instead of waiting until there was the largest audience. And the terrorist bombs include nails, rat poison, and other additional material designed not to do more building damage, but to kill and maim more people which is their specific objective. Most wars have collateral damage and the parties are required to make a good faith attempt to minimize that. But the terrorists not only make no attempt, but make strong efforts to kill as many as possible. That is a huge moral and ethical distinction.
This was her last report on the Syrian Government massacre of its own citizens in order to consolidate and maintain power. The building she and other journalists were taking shelter in was shelled by government heavy artillery and she and others were killed. The patch over her eye in the photo reflected the loss of one of her eyes when she was covering the civil war in Sri Lanka. She was struck with shrapnel. She continued her reporting despite the great risk.
Most Arabs blamed only the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel and ignored what they did or did not do since 1949.
DPs were “displaced persons” -- the euphemism for people who were no longer welcome in their country of birth. Congress, made up mostly of immigrants or the children of immigrants who were poor and downtrodden, were not enthusiastic about the United States absorbing many of the world’s DPs resulting from WWII.
Paul tended to be one of the very few Republicans who did not favor American intervention in Syria.
Peter Maurer (born 1956) is a Swiss diplomat who has been serving as the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since 1 July 2012. Maurer was born in Thun, Switzerland.
