“These Americans are cowards, because if they were courageous, they would have confronted us face-to-face, rather than coming at us from behind”

—  Tariq Aziz

attributed to Tareq Aziz in a July, 2007 interview http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/1516.htm with former Iraqi press secretary Abd Al-Jabbar Muhsen

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "These Americans are cowards, because if they were courageous, they would have confronted us face-to-face, rather than c…" by Tariq Aziz?
Tariq Aziz photo
Tariq Aziz 6
Iraqi Foreign Minister under Saddam Hussein 1936–2015

Related quotes

Harry Emerson Fosdick photo

“Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.”

Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) American pastor

Source: God of Grace and God of Glory (1930)
Context: God of grace and God of glory,
On Thy people pour Thy power.
Crown Thine ancient church’s story,
Bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.

Arthur Hugh Clough photo

“Come back again, old heart! Ah me!
Methinks in those thy coward fears
There might, perchance, a courage be,
That fails in these the manlier years;
Courage to let the courage sink,
Itself a coward base to think,
Rather than not for heavenly light
Wait on to show the truly right.”

Arthur Hugh Clough (1819–1861) English poet

The Higher Courage http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/C/CloughArthurHugh/verse/poemsproseremains/highercourage.html, st. 7 (1840).

Walter Raleigh photo

“Cowards fear to die; but courage stout,
Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.”

Walter Raleigh (1554–1618) English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer

On the snuff of a candle the night before he died; Raleigh's Remains, p. 258, ed. 1661

Judy Blume photo
David Brin photo

“Step back for a minute and note an important piece of psychohistory — that every generation of Americans faced adversaries who called us "decadent cowards and pleasure-seeking sybarites (wimps), devoid of any of the virtues of manhood."”

David Brin (1950) novelist, short story writer

A rant about stupidity... and the coming civil war... (2009)
Context: Step back for a minute and note an important piece of psychohistory — that every generation of Americans faced adversaries who called us "decadent cowards and pleasure-seeking sybarites (wimps), devoid of any of the virtues of manhood."
Elsewhere, I mark out this pattern, showing how every hostile nation, leader or meme had to invest in this story, for a simple reason. Because Americans were clearly happier, richer, smarter, more successful and far more free than anyone else. Hence, either those darned Yanks must know a better way of living (unthinkable!)... or else they must have traded something for all those surface satisfactions.
Something precious. Like their cojones. Or their souls. A devil's bargain. And hence — (our adversaries told themselves) — those pathetic American will fold up, like pansies, as soon as you give them a good push.
It is the one uniform trait shown by every* vicious, obstinate and troglodytic enemy of the American Experiment. A wish fantasy that convinced Hitler and Stalin and the others that urbanized, comfortable New Yorkers and Californians and all the rest cannot possibly have any guts, not like real men. A delusion shared by the King George, the plantation-owners, the Nazis, Soviets and so on, down to Saddam and Osama bin Laden. A delusion that our ancestors disproved time and again, decisively — though not without a lot of pain.

John Scalzi photo

“You would rather face a life without me than to have me choose a life I would not choose for myself.”

John Scalzi (1969) American science fiction writer

Source: The Sagan Diary

Mengistu Haile Mariam photo
Jesse Ventura photo

“I would rather face the terrorists than lose my civil liberties.”

Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler

Source: Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! (2008), Ch. 14 (p. 271)
Context: I would rather face the terrorists than lose my civil liberties. If protecting our safety means taking away our Bill of Rights, then could I be so crass and bold as to scream "Give me liberty or give me death"? Once freedom is gone—the bedrock foundation that built our country—what's left to stand for and believe in?

Alice A. Bailey photo

Related topics