''The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient."

''The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient."  General William West(wants)moreland

Orientalism , of course, is a well known colonial construct. A construct  that justified  and made easy the grabbing of 'other's'  lands. The Oriental did not value life  The Oriental did not feel the pain. The Oriental could be killed without  any remorse. 

The quote from WestMoreLand  popped up this morning in an article  about  a controversy that the NYT chief in Israel  has got into.  She  crossed a barrier  and is paying a price.  Freedom of the Press just does not exist . Does it? Certainly not when it involves Israel and the American Press

That said, it is certainly understandable that her comments prompted anger. For one, the idea that the primitive enemies of the west - those whom the west dominates - do not grieve their dead as intensely as westerners do has long been a grotesque trope of the colonial mindset. Gen. William Westmoreland infamously said in the 1974 documentary "Hearts and Minds" about the Vietnam War (the difficult-to-watch video ishere):

"The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does a Westerner. Life is plentiful. Life is cheap in the Orient."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/28/israel-gaza-nyt-rudoren-twitter/