Christopher Hitchens Quotes
There are people who cannot forget, as neither do I, the lesson of the years of the Indochina War. Which was, first, that the state is capable of being a murderer. A mass murderer, and a conspirator and a liar.
Hitchens, Christopher. The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Verso, 2001.
See Antoine Boulay de la Meurthe for a similar statement over a century earlier.
The day before, Helms’ deputy testified about the high number of civilian casualties that American bombing of North Vietnam had caused.
[During the Guatemalan Civil War, the military had often tortured, murdered disappeared and sexually enslaved female relatives of men they suspected of being rebel. The object was to humiliate and emasculate the insurrectionists so that others will not join them and they will cease their revolutionary activities to protect their women. The civil war ended in 1996, and although military war criminals had been tried earlier but never for crimes – sexual crimes against women. 20 year had elapsed since the end of the war and this famous trial. The two war criminals were sentenced to 120 and 240 years in prison respectively, but they had escaped justice for more than two decades. The United States, in the middle of the Red Scare was supporting and financing the Guatemalan government and military. In addition America trained many of the military in counter-insurgency which taught some methods that were contrary to International Law and which were illegal for American soldiers to engage in. After official documents of the era were declassified, it became clear that U. S. officials—–especially the CIA--were aware of the excesses and war crimes of the Guatemalan military, but did little to stop it. See Quotes 583699, and 583697 for more on the American involvement.]
In 1936, Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia in an effort to obtain an African colony like other European Countries had. Over 50 nations had promised aid to Ethiopia if attacked but then the Italian attacks came, it was not just soldiers with some small artillery and vehicles. Instead it was a full modern army with not only heavy artillery and tanks, but extensive use of air power against villages and towns which generally hardly had rifles. The airplane carnage of civilian populations was a shock to the world. However, the tactics were studied by the Italian German Fascist allies who further developed air power use against unarmed towns and cities in the Spanish Civil war. The aid promised to Christian Ethiopia never materialized because there was a worldwide depression and the great powers would have had to commit to major war—not just send some arms and ammunition. The Ethiopians mostly fought with spears and knives. The Fascists were thus emboldened for the invasion of Europe a few years later.
Christopher Eric Hitchens was an English-American intellectual, polemicist, and socio-political critic, who expressed himself as an author, orator, essayist and columnist. He wrote, co-wrote, edited or co-edited over 30 books, including five of essays on culture, politics and literature. Having contributed to several publications, he is broadly regarded as one of the most influential atheists of all time.
