Barbaric Quotes
William the Conqueror. This is one of the first if not the first nationwide abolition of capital punishment in history. Ironically, the two alternatives that the abolition law allowed would both be illegal and repugnant to us today even though we allow capital punishment.
He had witnessed thousands of Crucifixions and did not favor the method of execution.
1000 Spanish prisoners of war were over a 4 day period beheaded. This infamous order has been a black mark on his general democratic and humane public life. Some apologists for his war crimes point out that the Spaniards were making an all-out assault on his revolutionary troops who were very badly outnumbered. It took many revolutionary solders to guard the prisoners and if Bolivar lost the upcoming battle, it would have been the end of his revolution and Spain might still be in control of much of South America. With the additional soldiers freed up from guard duty, Bolivar barely survived the battle and the Revolution was not crushed.
It was never submitted as evidence in any proceeding or made a part of the U. S. investigatory record of war crimes of World War II. Nor was it ever found in Japan in the official records. The only copy was found in 2003 at the home of Bonner F. Fellers one of MacArthur’s top aids in the Japanese Occupation. Fellers and McArthur advocated not further investigating or trying the Japanese Emperor either because they, believed he was not guilty or because they thought his trial would be too disruptive to the occupation. The authenticity of this monologue has not been verified. Apologists for the Emperor argue that it shows that he was a virtual prisoner of the militarists and unable to stop the war or any of the war crimes; others argue that the Japanese military would never have gone against the will of the Emperor and that this document was probably prepared with the coaching of General Fellers as ex post facto “evidence” of the Emperor’s innocence. See {643148} and {601309} for examples of Fellers manipulating the “evidence.”
This and other quotations like {640611} and {640616} show that the State Department knew that Mobutu Sese Seko, the man we were backing in the Congo had many very undesirable characteristics for a dependable foreign ally and one who would be given control of billions of American money. Yet nothing was done and we continued to support him despite the kleptocracy and the instability that undermined his regime and the United States along with it.
