Susan Sontag Quotes
The Bush administration has committed the country to a new, pseudo-religious doctrine of war, endless war — for "the war on terror" is nothing less than that.
Susan Sontag, 1933-2004, Writer & Critic, "Regarding the Torture of Others" New York Times, May 23, 2004
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He served Presidents Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes
The ‘Third Reich’ was Nazi Germany. Some scholars criticize President Reagan for disparaging and angering Al Qaeda and other Islamic organizations for no particular purpose. Others criticize him for, as this quote indicates, his not taking these organizations and their leaders seriously enough.
The attack on the World Trade Towers and our military reaction to that could not fairly be blamed on Bush. However, the Iraq War was certainly a policy choice he made. And he also made the decision to cut taxes (mostly for the rich) on the assumption that this would stimulate the economy and produce even more taxes. It did not. And also on Bush’s policy responsibility was his decision not to raise taxes to pay for a war. This had never been done in American history. And Bush was fighting two wars. In addition when he took office Bill Clinton had balanced the budget and left a substantial surplus. Instead of using the surplus to pay for his other policy decisions, he spent it.
President George W. Bush, to justify the invasion of Iraq had told the public that the Iraqi regime was developing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and had participated in the September 11 attack on the United States by assisting Al Qaeda. It turned out that these statements were false. The administration claimed that their error was well intentioned and the result of faulty intelligence. Opponents claimed that the administration officials knew that they were exaggerating and had pressured the intelligence agencies to create intelligence conclusions that supported their story.
President George W. Bush, to justify the invasion of Iraq had told the public that the Iraqi regime was developing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and had participated in the September 11 attack on the United States by assisting Al Qaeda. It turned out that these statements were false. The administration claimed that their error was well intentioned and the result of faulty intelligence. Opponents claimed that the administration officials knew that they were exaggerating and had pressured the intelligence agencies to create intelligence conclusions that supported their story.
The first non-PRI President in over 70 years.
The claims of the President that Hussein even had weapons of mass destruction were untrue. Eagleburger’s criteria for war would have been even more stringent as is clear in this quotation. Foreign affairs experienced members of the President’s own party tried to dissuade him from this disastrous plan of invading Iraq but were unable to.
Susan Sontag was an American writer, filmmaker, philosopher, teacher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her best-known works include the critical works Against Interpretation (1966), Styles of Radical Will (1968), On Photography (1977), and Illness as Metaphor (1978), as well as the fictional works The Way We Live Now (1986), The Volcano Lover (1992), and In America (1999).
