...of killing children.

"It is our love of these innocents that endangers them. If we did not care if children died, they would be in little danger."

"That cannot be," she replies in anger.

"But it is so," I contest. "If we did not care if our children died, they would not be targets. There would be no reason to target them, because we would not be moved by their deaths.

"If we did not care if their children died," I add, "there would be no reason to clutter military emplacements with their presence. If it were not that we are horrified by the deaths of children, the enemy's children would be clear of all places of battle -- because they are, except for the fact that we love them, a hindrance."

She bites her lip.

"Of course, we cannot cut out our hearts," I tell her. "Nor should we -- as we wish to remain men, and good men, rather than monsters. Yet it is our love that is the chief danger to the innocent now -- to our own innocents, and theirs also."

Rand

Very powerful.

Keep up the good work of finding these writings.

Dennis

"We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children, we can never forgive the Arabs for forcing us to kill their children"

Golda Mier

In that simple statement is the difference between the civilized and the barbaric!

It's cold and it's cruel, but I have said many times that the most significant argument I have about the execution of this war, is that we didn't kill enough people.

The horror of war should be taught to the populace, not just to the willing participants. In fact, MOST of the civilians are willing participants in the peripheral. Immagine a life insurance allowing for a policy for a family that DEMANDS they should live next to terrorists.

The first form of insurance, is to make an effort for yourself to not get KILLED!

Kill them now, and we won't have to worry about killing even more later, and killing ourselves along the way.

This is the only time that macchiavelli is a person I support, actually not macchiavelli, actually Cezare borgia, but it's best to not let the intellectuals small over eger, and undereducated minds interfere.

eger = ego

Wickedpinto says: The horror of war should be taught to the populace, not just to the willing participants.

That's crap. The horror of war should not be visited upon anyone. If war occurs, then it is the leaders that need to see the horrors, and the leaders that need to experience it. For a notion like ours, it further supports the ideal that war is a last resort only. For other nations with a different mindset, it may teach the leaders to value life the way we do. The only thing your statement has of truth is that the populace needs to be taught.