Humanitarian Intervention Quotes

“The thing is, you cannot ask people to coexist by having one side bow their heads and rely on a solution that is only good for the other side. What you can do is stop blaming each other and engage in dialogue with one person at a time. Everyone knows that violence begets violence and breeds more hatred. We need to find our way together. I feel I cannot rely on the various spokespersons who claim they act on my behalf. Invariably they have some agenda that doesn't work for me. Instead, I talk to my patients, to my neighbors and colleagues--Jews, Arabs--and I find out they feel as I do: we are more similar than we are different, and we are all fed up with the violence.”
― Izzeldin Abuelaish

“That war [Bosnian war] in the early 1990s changed a lot for me. I never thought I would see, in Europe, a full-dress reprise of internment camps, the mass murder of civilians, the reinstiutution of torture and rape as acts of policy. And I didn't expect so many of my comrades to be indifferent - or even take the side of the fascists. It was a time when many people on the left were saying 'Don't intervene, we'll only make things worse' or, 'Don't intervene, it might destabilise the region. And I thought - destabilisation of fascist regimes is a good thing. Why should the left care about the stability of undemocratic regimes? Wasn't it a good thing to destabilise the regime of General Franco? It was a time when the left was mostly taking the conservative, status quo position - leave the Balkans alone, leave Milosevic alone, do nothing. And that kind of conservatism can easily mutate into actual support for the aggressors. Weimar-style conservatism can easily mutate into National Socialism. So you had people like Noam Chomsky's co-author Ed Herman go from saying 'Do nothing in the Balkans', to actually supporting Milosevic, the most reactionary force in the region. That's when I began to first find myself on the same side as the neocons. I was signing petitions in favour of action in Bosnia, and I would look down the list of names and I kept finding, there's Richard Perle. There's Paul Wolfowitz. That seemed interesting to me. These people were saying that we had to act. Before, I had avoided them like the plague, especially because of what they said about General Sharon and about Nicaragua. But nobody could say they were interested in oil in the Balkans, or in strategic needs, and the people who tried to say that - like Chomsky - looked ridiculous. So now I was interested.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“Because you can't intervene everywhere, you don't conclude you can't intervene anywhere.”
― Zbigniew Brzezinski

“The question shouldn't be what we ought to do, but what we can do.”
― Rory Stewart

“It's all very well for us to sit here in the west with our high incomes and cushy lives, and say it's immoral to violate the sovereignty of another state. But if the effect of that is to bring people in that country economic and political freedom, to raise their standard of living, to increase their life expectancy, then don't rule it out.”
― Niall Ferguson

“The debacle in Iraq has reinforced the realist dictum, disparaged by idealists in the 1990s, that the legacies of geography, history and culture really do set limits on what can be accomplished in any given place. But the experience in the Balkans reinforced an idealist dictum that is equally true: One should always work near the limits of what is possible rather than cynically give up on any place. In this decade idealists went too far; in the previous one, it was realists who did not go far enough.”
― Robert D. Kaplan

“Sometimes, a war saves people.”
― Jose Ramos-Horta, A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq

“No god is coming to save you - no messiah is coming to save you - all the gods and all the messiahs that can save our world are already here - they are us - each one of us - so, open your eyes o mighty lords of time, and cleanse this world of all barbarian impurities, with the force of your bold, brave and humane actions.”
― Abhijit Naskar, All For Acceptance

“The Red Cross, our last hope, had left us to starve.”
― Savo Heleta, Not My Turn to Die: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia

“Abandon all segregation, ye who read me.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“The purpose of my life is to make immortal Gods of out of every mortal human.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Time to End Democracy: The Meritocratic Manifesto

“The purpose of my life is to make Gods out of every human.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Time to End Democracy: The Meritocratic Manifesto

“My dear nazis old and new, while there is time change your view. If I get my hands on you, no savior will do nothing for you.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulldozer on Duty

“I wanted to use science in a way that would have direct humanitarian consequences in interhuman relationships. And now even if I die, my works will keep on creating lion-hearted humanitarian torch-bearers of progress, for ages to come.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Lives to Serve Before I Sleep

“Human you are – yes – but not an ordinary human – you are born to shape the collective thought processes of a species – you are born to take humanity ahead, not backward.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Conscience over Nonsense

“I give you this law today - humans above all - knowing in my heart, that it shall serve you in your darkest moments.”
― Abhijit Naskar, 7 Billion Gods: Humans Above All

“The more the scars, the greater your impact on the world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Every Generation Needs Caretakers: The Gospel of Patriotism

“In the end, time shall ask you the question, what have you really done with your life, more than just consuming oxygen, nutrition and water from Nature! And then my friend, you must have the capacity in your identity as an original human being, to tell time, that it's not you who shall answer its question, rather it is time itself that will by its own free will take up the responsibility to remind the millions of generations to come, who you are.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Saint of The Sapiens

“You have the biological potential in your neurons to become a true lord of time, who never dies, despite having perished physically from earth.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Saint of The Sapiens

“I can’t spend my life with only one woman - I need all the women in the world - I need all the men in the world - I need everyone in the world, for you all are my family.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“A human should be a trash can for the misery of other humans - a human should be a powersource for those who are weak - a human should be a sun to those living in darkness - a human should be a messiah to those who are meek.”
― Abhijit Naskar, All For Acceptance

“I am not interested in peddling myself as an expert, all I am interested in is to make sure that when the humans look at the mirror they see a human, instead of seeing a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, an Atheist, an American, an European, a Russian, an Asian or anything else.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Monk Meets World

“Humanitarians don't die, they turn martyr.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Martyr Meets World: To Solve The Hard Problem of Inhumanity

“I prefer to sit on the sidewalk and share a hotdog with a homeless person than sit at a fancy restaurant and have dinner with a billionaire.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Martyr Meets World: To Solve The Hard Problem of Inhumanity

“Like a bubble in water, the civilized human rises, exists and dissolves in the people.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society

“The struggle isn't over till the last drop of tear is wiped out.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Gente Mente Adelante: Prejudice Conquered is World Conquered

“No Rest (The Sonnet)

There is no rest,
Till the last drop of tear is wiped out.
There is no leisure,
Till the voiceless can speak aloud.
There is no relaxing,
Till the last empty stomach is fed.
There is no sleep,
Till all droopy spines are made straight.
There is no joy,
Till the last grey life is colored.
There is no comfort,
Till the last anxious soul is empowered.
The struggle isn't over till the fallen rise.
Security later, first let us be civilized.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Gente Mente Adelante: Prejudice Conquered is World Conquered

“Sonnet of Rulers

The only people who'll rule the world,
Are the ones who want to rule not a being.
The only people to inherit the earth,
Are the ones who want to inherit nothing.
The only people who win hearts,
Are those who give all without question.
The only people who become family to all,
Are those who walk without assumption.
The only people who never die,
Are those who happily die for others.
The only people who are the happiest,
Are those who have no trace of selfish desires.
Selfishness is synonym for suffering and misery.
Joy is just a byproduct of service to humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Handcrafted Humanity: 100 Sonnets For A Blunderful World

“If a tree falls in a forest, and you are not there, it is okay that you do not hear. But if a child cries in a warzone, and you are not there, is it still okay that you do not hear?”
― Abhijit Naskar, Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission

“The greatest humanitarians are silent humanitarians, who live their mission with zero claim to applause.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo