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All Quotes by author - Douglas Hurd
" A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur. "
Fresh
Act
Democratic
" But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich. "
Will
Suffer
Fear
" But it cannot follow that because weapons and troops are now being deployed we are bound to go to war. "
Follow
Cannot
Because
" Despite this lamentable lack of balance in our education I do not believe that either children or adults in my country are permeated by a widespread hostility to Germany. "
Children
Believe
Balance
" History provides no precise guidelines. "
Provides
Guidelines
History
" I may be wrong in that, but not I think in putting the questions. In our modern democracy the government needs not a unanimous but a general support for war before it orders our forces to fight. "
Support
War
Fight
" It depends on how it is done but what we are drifting into, which is that people grow up without any sense of a spiritual dimension to life, is just impoverishing. "
People
Up
Done
" It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching. "
Normal
History
Her
" It was essentially for self defence that we went to war in Afghanistan and would go to war in Iraq. "
Afghanistan
Go
Defence
" Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe. "
Growing
Years
Up
" Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic strength to a Germany which was already the strongest economic partner in Europe. "
She
Bring
Economic
" Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time. "
Actions
Values
Time
" No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors. "
Successful
Military
Time
" People are very interested in politics, they just don't like it labelled politics. "
Interested
People
Just
" People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance. "
Know
Guidance
Kind
" The first two Prime Ministers whom I served, Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher drew strikingly different lessons from the Second World War. "
First
World
War
" There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours. "
Values
Past
Great
" There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War. "
War
World
Today
" There is nothing false or arrogant about German pride in German technical and business skills. "
Nothing
Pride
Business
" The tragedy of 9/11 galvanised the American superpower into action, leaving us in Europe divided in its wake. "
Action
American
Leaving
" We, Britain and Germany, can neither of us be happy about our handling of the Iraq war. "
War
Germany
Be Happy
" We must admit that history is enjoyable to a large extent because it enables us to pass judgement on the past. "
Past
Judgement
Us
" We should be wary of politicians who profess to follow history while only noticing those signposts of history that point in the direction which they themselves already favour. "
Follow
Direction
Politicians
" Wisely used history can give pleasure and provide us with a useful tool; but we should not become its slaves. "
History
Become
Pleasure
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