the nationalist

  To save your world you asked this man to die; Would this man, could he see you now, ask why? ~ W. H. Auden: "Epitaph for an Unknown Soldier"  

Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them. There is almost no kind of outrage-----torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, the bombing of civilians-----which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side. ...The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. ~ George Orwell  

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundnce of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

government

When shall it be said in any country of the world, my poor are happy, neither ignorance or distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes not oppressive; the rational world is my friend because I am a friend of its happiness. When these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and government .
~ Thomas Paine

american torture

Torture: If the Americans are doing it, and they’re not accountable, then who’s going to come to our rescue?   ~Moazzam Begg, Detainee #558 in Guantanamo Bay.