| WAR & MILITARISM |
| "what fools we are to live in a world as if war is a computer game or just an interesting little channel four news item" "the military men are clever. They talk not about hydrogen bombs but detterrent. They talk not about people but collatoral damage. They talk not about power stations and sewerage plants but about assetts" "if we are serious about wanting peace we have got to eliminate the causes of war, and to do that we shall have to study our history a bit more carefully" "it would be a total corruption of the whole meaning and spirit of the UN Charter, which was carefully written to make it possible the peaceful settlement of international disputes, to try to present it as offering a blank cheque for war whenever the United States wants one" "... the so called special relationship ... is a semi-colonial relationship based on the fact that America supplies us with nuclear weopens and allows us to pretend that we have an independent deterrent. In return, the US controls our intelligence services and dictates our foreign and defence policies..." "Britain is now in effect, an American colony, seen in Washington as an unsinkable aircraft carrier..." "All war represents a failure of diplomacy" "the real function of the United Nations is to act as the custodian of social justice. It should not just serve as a policeman" "Simply having nuclear weopens destroys democracy. When a country has them, ministers - of all parties - lie. No minister has ever told the truth about any central question of nuclear policy" "The word terrorists is a term of abuse used to describe those with whom you disagree. According to Mrs Thatcher the ANC are terrorists" "I never had any sympathy with the Soviet system and it's lack of democracy but I never believed the Russians were threateningto invade Western Europe" "I don't see any moral difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber because they both kill people for political reasons" "In 1993 I spoke in Hyde park to a couple of million people...afterwards someone from the BBC said 'you're a voice in the wilderness' and I said 'well there are two million people in my wilderness, how many are there in yours?' |
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