Paddy Ashdown Quotes
I am here because I think it was a terrible sin of the west to allow those years of war.
Ashdown, Paddy. Interview by Ed Vulliamy. The Guardian, 2 Nov. 2005.
Syria and its Terrorist Lebanon Proxy Hezbollah were trying to control Lebanon. Syrian troops had been stationed in Lebanon at the request of Hezbollah, which had a narrow plurality in the parliament but did not control the Lebanese Army. Most Lebanese who were not Hezbollah supporters opposed their Islamic fundamentalist approach. They also resented Syrian troops occupying Lebanese soil and intimidating the politicians. After Tueni publicly blamed Syria, the Syrian leadership then instructed Hezbollah to assassinate Tueni which they did in 2005. It took another 5 years for the United Nations investigation found officially that it was Hezbollah operatives that were the assassins.
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.
This statement was made before the 2012 Syrian Revolution.
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.
Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, CH, KBE, PC, known as Paddy Ashdown, was a British politician and diplomat who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999. He achieved international recognition for his role as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002 to 2006, following his vigorous lobbying for military action against Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
