Ratko Mladic Quotes

Assuring one of his business associates alarmed at the landslide election victory of a Democrat, Grover Cleveland:

He was a brutal, sadistic war criminal who was assassinated by one of his many enemies in 2000 before he could be brought to trial.

Greece had always coveted Anatolia which was a part of the Ottoman Empire but had been in antiquity a Greek dominated area. Further, people of Greek ethnicity and culture, who hundreds of years ago used to be the vast majority were, after the hundreds of years of Ottoman rule and migration, were then the largest minority in Anatolia. The Turks lost the First World War as a consequence of their allying with Germany, and had been stripped of their vast Arab territories. Also, Turkey had just undergone a revolution and the old order was displaced. Greek Nationalist Prime Minister Venizelos saw this as an opportunity to get back Anatolia and sent a military invasion force to land at Smyrna (Ismir to the Turks), the largest city of Anatolia where despite the Greek minority in all of Anatolia, Greeks were a small majority in Smyrna. The invasion was initially successful but was then repulsed by the Turk revolutionists lead by their great patriot Ataturk who counterattacked and defeated the Greek forces handily despite the fact that they were hastily organized, untrained together, and much more poorly equipped than the Greeks. However, the Greeks in their retreat, followed a scorched earth policy and as this quotation shows, committed many atrocities against the Turkish civilian villages.

The Armenian-Turkish enmity was vicious to the point that each people tried to kill and exterminate the other—men women and children. The atrocities committed by the Armenians were unfortunately greatly exceeded by the Turks in what is now often referred to as the “Armenian Genocide”—see {51838}, {631062} and {61904}. Armenians were in the minority yet each side slaughtered members of the other whenever they could. The Ottoman Turks were much better at it. The hatred still prevails – see {588211}. And Turks and Armenians both still accuse the other of atrocities during the period and appear in denial about their own violence.

He was a brutal, sadistic war criminal who was assassinated by one of his many enemies in 2000 before he could be brought to trial.

He was a brutal, sadistic war criminal who was assassinated by one of his many enemies in 2000 before he could be brought to trial.

He was a brutal, sadistic war criminal who was assassinated by one of his many enemies in 2000 before he could be brought to trial.

The Franks on the First Crusade, had a terrible reputation for greed and rapine amongst the Muslims. But it was equally shared by many of the Christians. Comnena was one of the Christian writers to reveal their atrocities and other dishonorable characteristics. To this day, there are some Muslim terrorists who justify their modern atrocities as retaliation and vengeance for the behavior of the Christians during the Crusades.

14 Arab Armies in a coordinated attack on the 1 day old Israeli state, intended to massacre all the Israelis as demonstrated by this quote. Note that this kind of extermnination intent was advertised with pride. To everyone's surprised, the Jewish defenders not only beat back the viscious attacks but enlssarged their terroitory by capturing strategic sites from which the attacks had been launched. Many people credit to the Israely victory to the fact that they were litterally fighting for their lives. Defeat would have meant death for them and their families. The Arab armies, in contrast, were fighting for land that other Arabs claimed that should have been theirs. The willingness to stand and fight for this goal did not match the self preservation that motivated the Israelis--especially in the aftermath of the Holocaust killing 6 million Jews in WWII.

There are some who argue that the quotation was made earlier and was not meant as an incendary call for massacre of Israelis. It well may be that in his original thinking, he was predicting what would happen if the State of Israel was created, basing his thoughts on historical artrocieties of the past. And many think he was concerned about that possible outcome and was trying to avoid it. The import of the quotation was not necessaruly to hisltorically blame Assam for the point of view but to simply establish that there were many Arab voices calling for victories of history where there were massacres in the Middle East. And there were those who took Azzam's quotation and broadcasted it on Arab radio, calling for the very massacre that Assam may have been warning about. Note that this notion of Jewish massacre and extermination was also picked up 60 years later and called for by the President of Iran.

Urging use of the National Guard to deal with drug infested neighborhoods in the nation's capital:

The Vietnam War did not appear to be going well for the United States. Congressman Murtha and a few other members of Congress asked the Commanding General what Congress should do in its oversight role. One problem is that most members of Congress took Westmoreland’s advice. It turned out that the military was fabricating statistics to show a more favorable outcome, and although the military could and did win any particular battle, the South Vietnamese Regime we were supporting was inept and corrupt, and we were making little strategic progress in the war. Congressional patience was later blamed by many for allowing the war effort to bog down and deteriorate with little or no oversight. At the time the statement was made, this was not a significant quotation. It became more important in the light of what happened. It was then heavily quoted in the Iraq war where the administration counseled Congressional and public patience although significant progress was not being made.

The President was under attack for the Teapot Dome scandal when he died in office: Harding was not personally involved with the Teapot Dome corruption scandal, but his appointees and friends were. Much public and press attack was directed at the President.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu'awiya ibn Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. Born near Damascus in Syria, grandson of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik,Abd al Rahman was the son of the Umayyad prince Mu'awiya ibn Hisham and a Berber mother. He was twenty when his family, the ruling Umayyads, were overthrown by a popular revolt known as the Abbasid Revolution, occurring in the year 750. Abd al-Rahman and a small selection of his family fled Damascus with assassins chasing him. He ended up running to Spain, and there built his incredibly successful dynasty.

This was part of the continual conflict between the Muslims and the Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Greeks ended up doubling their territory.