Otto Hahn Quotes
First we attacked the Russian soldiers with our gases, and then when we saw the poor fellows lying there, dying slowly, we tried to make breathing easier for them by using our own life-saving devices on them.
Hahn, Otto. My Life. Translated by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins, Herder and Herder, 1970, p. 119.
The convoy was heading for the city of Alleppo that had been under siege by the government for weeks. 22 UN Aid Workers were killed and half the cargo was destroyed. Syria had been in a Civil War for a number of years, and the Government of Bashar al-Assad had committed one atrocity after another. A cease fire had been agreed to and the UN notified all parties to the war about the humanitarian convoy’s schedule and route. It was not known whether the government had decided to attack the convoy to put more pressure on the people in Aleppo to end their rebellion or the attack was made by local commanders of government troops who did not want to see the pressure on Aleppo lifted.
When TR came to office, the U. S. was in the midst of war with Philippine insurgents who were fighting an asymmetric , guerrilla war against the U. S. Army. The war had become very brutal with the insurgents using terror and atrocities and some Army units executing prisoners and torturing captives. Roosevelt, actually fired the General who was in charge of the field troops rather than just discipline lower level officers as usually has happened.
Wherever there has been a true free press, there have been anti-war activists who are particularly critical of the affect on civilians—collateral damage or otherwise.
He was the Secretary of State in the War Office at the time. The Royal Air Force had suggested an experiment---gassing “recalcitrant Arabs” from the air. This predated Sadaam Hussein's gassing of Hussein's gassing of his own people by over 70 years.
Assad and the Syrian rulers not only committed international crimes against the Lebanese, but in 2012 started murdering thousands of their own Syrian people who lived in areas which had people critical of the regime.
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.
“Tragedies” was used as a euphemism for incidents of “war crimes” or atrocities committed by individuals or small groups contrary to the official policy of the military or the country. McCain had personally been the victim of those committed by the Vietnamese in the Vietnam War. He was not surprised when some American and Canadian soldiers were guilty of some of these in the Afghanistan War.
This statement was made before the 2012 Syrian Revolution.
The First World War had recently ended with the mass of horrible casualties that resulted from the use of poison gas. Permanently debilitated veterans were trying to rebuild a life all over England. Many Englishmen wanted to ban English use of poison gas. Churchill objected as the Middle East was a cauldron of various forms of terrorism then in areas that the British were “responsible for” under the Peace Treaty. He argued that there was little difference be gas and shells, but that did not persuade many others. Churchill was outvoted and overruled and the British have never used poison gas since although they had a large supply and were prepared to use it in WWII if the Germans did. This quotation was a blot on Churchill’s reputation. One issue was whether or not it was human to use poison gas. Churchill was willing to say no where white Christians were concerned but was perfectly willing to use them on the “uncivilized”.
Otto Hahn was a German chemist, and a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. Hahn is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry. Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered radioactive isotopes of radium, thorium, protactinium and uranium. He also discovered the phenomena of radioactive recoil and nuclear isomerism, and pioneered rubidium–strontium dating. In 1938, Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission, for which Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Nuclear fission was the basis for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.
