“How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us?”
Here’s an Israeli view on what overwhelming displays of force can bring: “A living people makes enormous concessions … only when there is no hope left. Only then do extreme groups lose their sway, and influence transfers to moderate groups. Only then would these moderate groups come to us with proposals for mutual concessions.” That could have been written last week. In fact, it is from a 1923 pamphlet by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, whose ideology inspired the Likud Party. If it speaks for Israeli policy today, the summer’s guns will not soon fall silent.
— Michael Elliott in Time Magazine
The People, Yes
Carl SandburgThe little girl saw her first troop parade and asked,
“What are those?”
“Soldiers.”
“What are soldiers?”
“They are for war. They fight and each tries to kill as many of the other side as they can.”
The girl held still and studied.
“Do you know… I know something.”
“Yes, what is it you know?”
“Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.”
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Swedish stupidity, Egyption torture, American torture, and Sudanese hell....
“Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.” — Voltaire
I should mention:
The title is from Bill Clinton’s speech at the 1993 Declaration of Principles for peace, where Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat famously shook hands—”A peace of the brave is within our reach. Throughout the Middle East there is a great yearning for the quiet miracle of a normal life.”
The oration against Caitiline was by Cicero in 63 B.C.
The first photograph is by Emilio Morenatti (AP), the second is by Kevin Frayer (AP).