Judith Lewis Herman Quotes

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.

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.

It is not known whether Agamemnon ever existed other than in Greek legends. The “quotation” comes to us from Homer’s Iliad which itself was based on oral histories before and itself was oral for years before it was written. So the dialogue may be written by Homer. However, if real, was the earliest reference to genocide. The photograph is of a mask believed to be of the period but there is no certainty is was the King even though was associated with him by Heinrich Schliemann—the 19th century archeologist who found the object.

Japanese military culture of the time was that a soldier who surrendered, even if wounded, was totally dishonorable and therefore could be abused and killed. The American marines then retaliated, and after that, the Americans also took no live prisoners contrary to American military regulations. This incident shows how difficult it is to maintain military professional standards and regulations if the other side does not. Similar situations existed in most American wars, but by the end of the 20th century, the all volunteer military had become much more professionalized and disciplined, and there were relatively few American atrocities despite many provocations.

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.

Although a very aggressive military commander, Grant did not approve of proposals to have wars of extermination which many called for against different Native American tribes.

At this point, the horrors of the German concentration death camps were generally known by the world press. This quotation shows the denial that the Irish Free State was in about the German Nazi atrocities. The 6-county Nationalsits were the Irish counties in Northern Ireland that did not join the Irish Free State and so far as the Catholic Irish were concerned, the Catholics of Northern Ireland were a persecuted minority undergoing oppression and that was not they believed morally different from the murders of millions of Jews, Gypsies and handicapped people in Europe. If the Free State Irish publicly admitted the difference, they would morally have had to join the allies and De Valera was totally opposed to that. Over 70,000 Irishmen and women rejected the moral stand of their government, and volunteered for the British Army to the great distress of the Free State leaders like De Valera. See {639722} for his personal denial of reality.

The assassination was attempted in 1944 and after its failure, he was shot be a firing squad.