“Noncombatants, young and old, were slaughtered ruthlessly, without compunction and without shame.”

"For Arabs who know their history, this will come as no surprise. In 1911, the first airplane-delivered bombs were dropped on Arabs by Europeans. In his book, A History of Bombing, Swedish author Sven Lindqvist describes Italian aviators dropping grenades on nomadic camps in the desert outside of Tripoli, in North Africa. He cites newspaper reports about the impact on the ground: “Noncombatants, young and old, were slaughtered ruthlessly, without compunction and without shame.” Impressed by this apparent effectiveness, other European powers soon joined in. Between 1915 and 1920, Britain bombed Arab towns and villages in Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Transjordan and Afghanistan. That is how the 20th century began."