Now comes this doozy:
Just what the world most definitely does not need: A silly person representing Christians on the world stage.Speaking to a group of young people in Turin, he departed from his script and launched into a rambling denunciation of, among others, arms manufacturers:“It makes me think of … people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons. That leads to a bit a distrust, doesn’t it?” he said to applause.He also criticized those who invest in weapons industries, saying “duplicity is the currency of today … they say one thing and do another.”We are a long way from “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.” Pope Francis then went on a tour of world history that included this gem:“The great powers had the pictures of the railway lines that brought the trains to the concentration camps like Auschwitz to kill Jews, Christians, homosexuals, everybody. Why didn’t they bomb (the railway lines)?”With what? Oh yeah, that would be bombs. Dropped out of bombers. Manufactured by…whom?
I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.
ReplyDeleteRonald Reagan
I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
ReplyDeleteThomas A. Edison
With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents.
ReplyDeleteOmar N. Bradley
The whole world knows that His glory has not been spread by force and weapons, but by poor fishermen.
ReplyDeleteGirolamo Savonarola
If men can develop weapons that are so terrifying as to make the thought of global war include almost a sentence for suicide, you would think that man's intelligence and his comprehension... would include also his ability to find a peaceful solution.
ReplyDeleteDwight D. Eisenhower
Nuclear war is such an emotional subject that many people see the weapons themselves as the common enemy of humanity.
ReplyDeleteHerman Kahn (founder of the Hudson Institute)
The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend.
ReplyDeleteAbraham Lincoln
Here's a good example of those moral adolescents of which Gen Bradley speaks:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/unite-against-moscow-aggression-us-nuclear-missile-commander-says-vladimir-putins-actions-echo-those-of-nazi-germany-in-the-1930s-10337983.html
Here's another example:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/22/white-house-pressed-to-extend-iran-nuclear-talks-d/
Interesting quotes from Lincoln, who presided over such decisive battles as Gettysburg and the sacking of Atlanta, and Eisenhower, who organized the largest sea-to-land expedition in human history.
ReplyDeleteReagan eloquently stated what the long-term ideal ought to be, but he kept those Pershing intermediate-range missiles at the ready in Germany.
ReplyDeleteProbably precisely because they saw and were immersed in such horror, Lincoln and Ike could say that.
ReplyDelete"War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate" --that silly Motown man whose daddy shot him dead
I dunno about this "silly" Pope but i would think that most popes with gravitas go to bed at night with the problems of the world swirling under their mitres. So they are certain to step on some dumbass toes in the morning.
ReplyDelete