The Masters of War

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

– Reichsmarshall Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials 1945.

"There was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could for them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died."

– William McKinley, the 25th President of the US, in 1899 after the Filipinos rose in revolt against American rule. It took 70,000 American soldiers, marines and sailors three years to brutally crush the rebellion. The death toll of Filipinos was enormous, both from battle casualties and disease.

"I do not understand this sqeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes."

– Winston Churchill as president of the Air Council in 1919. Later as colonial secretary and secretary for war and air, he authorized the RAF in the 1920s to routinely use mustard gas against rebellious Kurdish tribesmen in Iraq and against Pashtun tribes on British India's northwest frontier. [Source: Simons, Geoff. Iraq: From Sumer to Saddam]

"Our cause in Ethiopia is a just one. In a few days it will be laid before the League's counsel. It will be laid before the whole world – proof that the Ethiopians are a barbaric people, sunk in the practice of slavery."

– Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, just before the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 that involved several atrocities such as the use of chemical weapons (mustard gas and phosgene), and the indiscriminate slaughter of much of the local population to prevent opposition. [Source]

"I shall give a propagandist reason for starting the war. Never mind whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked afterward whether he told the truth or not. In starting and waging a war it is not right that matters but victory."

– Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany to his generals in August 1939, just before the invasion of Poland. [Source]

Saddam Hussein has a long history of reckless aggression and terrible crimes. He possesses weapons of terror. He provides funding and training and safe haven to terrorists – terrorists who would willingly use weapons of mass destruction against America and other peace-loving countries. Saddam Hussein and his weapons are a direct threat to this country, to our people, and to all free people.

– George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the US, at a press conference in March 2003, just before the invasion of Iraq. [Source]

"President Nixon wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia. He doesn't want to hear anything. It's an order, it's to be done. Anything that flies, on anything that moves. You got that?"

– National security adviser Henry Kissinger in 1970 to General Alexander Haig. [Source] An entire country was ripped to shreds, and into the smoking ruins stepped a fanatical band of crazed extremists – the Khmer Rouge – who murdered a million more.

"There were then about 1,000 of our citizens on Grenada, 800 of them students in St. George's University Medical School. Concerned that they'd be harmed or held as hostages, I ordered a flotilla of ships, then on its way to Lebanon with Marines, part of our regular rotation program, to circle south on a course that would put them somewhere in the vicinity of Grenada in case there should be a need to evacuate our people."

– Ronald Reagan the 40th US president, justifying the invasion of Grenada in October 1983. [Source] No evidence was ever produced that the students were in any danger.

"General Noriega's reckless threats and attacks upon Americans in Panama created an imminent danger to the 35,000 American citizens in Panama."

– 41st US president George H. W. Bush justifying the invasion of Panama in 1989. [Source] As a result of the invasion a large tenement barrio in Panama City was wiped out; 15,000 people were left homeless. Thousands of Panamanian civilians were killed by US forces.

"Last night I announced to the American people that the North Vietnamese regime had conducted further deliberate attacks against US naval vessels operating in international waters, and therefore directed air action against gunboats and supporting facilities used in these hostile operations. […]
After consultation with the leaders of both parties in the Congress, I further announced a decision to ask the Congress for a resolution expressing the unity and determination of the United States in supporting freedom and in protecting peace in southeast Asia."

– US president Lyndon Johnson to Congress in 1964. [Source] In response to the "deliberate attacks" that never happened Congress gave Johnson more power that led to the escalation of the Vietnam War and the deaths of up to five million South East Asians.

"Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators."

British General Stanley Maude in a proclamation to the people of Baghdad, March 8, 1917 after the invasion of Iraq. [Source]

"The Arab and Kurd now know what real bombing means in casualties and damage. Within forty-five minutes a full-size village can be practically wiped out and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured."

– Wing-Commander Arthur "Bomber" Harris in 1924 after a bombing mission in Iraq. [Source] He later became the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command where he was responsible for the fire-bombing of Dresden.

"We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux," Sherman wrote to Ulysses S. Grant (commanding general of the federal army) in 1866, "even to their extermination, men, women and children." The Sioux must "feel the superior power of the Government." Sherman vowed to remain in the West "till the Indians are all killed or taken to a country where they can be watched."
"During an assault," he instructed his troops, "the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age." He chillingly referred to this policy in an 1867 letter to Grant as "the final solution to the Indian problem", a phrase Hitler invoked some 70 years later.

– General William Tecumseh Sherman. [Source]

In 59BC, Julius Caesar declared he was so shocked by the incursions of the dangerous Helvetii tribe into Gaul, and the suffering of the Gaulish peoples, that he had himself appointed 'protector of the Gauls'. By the time he'd finished protecting them, a million Gauls were dead, another million enslaved and Julius Caesar owned most of Gaul.

– Julius Caesar. [Source]

"I congratulate you and the officers and men of your command upon the brilliant feat of arms wherein you and they so well upheld the honor of the American flag."

– US president Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, commending his friend General Leonard Wood, who had carried out the Moro Massacre in which 900 Filipino men women and children, armed only with a few knives and clubs, were trapped in a crater and shot at and bombarded by artillery for days by US troops. There were no survivors. [Source]

Saddam Hussein "has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons which could be activated within 45 minutes."

– Prime Minister Tony Blair, Parliament, September 2002.[Source]

"To protect our men who are in Vietnam and to guarantee the continued success of our withdrawal and Vietnamization programs, I have concluded that the time has come for action.
Tonight, I shall describe the actions of the enemy, the actions I have ordered to deal with that situation, and the reasons for my decision. Cambodia, a small country of 7 million people, has been a neutral nation since the Geneva agreement of 1954, an agreement, incidentally, which was signed by the Government of North Vietnam.
American policy since then has been to scrupulously respect the neutrality of the Cambodian people."

– US President Richard Nixon lying to the American people on April 30, 1970. Nixon and Kissinger had approved a total of 3,530 bombing sorties over Cambodia between February 1969 and April 1970 resulting in over 600,000 deaths.[Source]