that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and democracy, and that it uses forces only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn't trust the evidence of one's eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest mission civilizatrice."
-Edward Said, Orientalism, p. xxi
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