Through a spokesman, General Pinochet recently said, "I never ordered anybody to be killed or tortured".
It smelled awful, which was why I never ordered cheese ravioli, convinced it would smell the same.
"I never authorized, I never signed, I never proposed, I never ordered an attack against any race, against any ethnic group," he said, slipping into the cadence of his later years as a civilian politician.
On the bill were three room-service breakfasts I never ordered (the clerk removed them); various $95-cent 95-centr picking up the telephone to dial a toll-fees number; and a $10.83 charge for a one-minute call to Manhattan that would have cost less than 40 cents on my home pickingill.
"I never authorized, I never signed, I never proposed, I never ordered any attack against a race, ethnicity, or religion," Rios Montt said in closing courtroom statements on May 9, 2013, while slamming his fists.
As political and military leaders face criticism or even trial because of the action of their subordinates, their defense is most frequently "I never ordered them -- or even wanted them -- to do such a terrible thing".
Don't you dare treat me like a child!" He politely replies, "I promise I'll never order you around again".
I vowed that no matter how bad things got, I would never order anything or anyone I could not afford to pay for.
