The argument that someone is a bad man is an inadequate argument for war and certainly an inadequate and unacceptable argument for regime change.
Interpretation
Labeling someone as a 'bad man' does not justify war or changing their regime.
In this quote, John Major argues that the moral judgment of an individual as a 'bad man' is insufficient grounds for initiating warfare or attempting to alter the governmental structure of a country. Such a perspective calls for a more nuanced understanding of international relations and emphasizes the dangers of oversimplification in justifying military interventions.
In practice
In a debate on foreign policy, one could use this quote to argue against military intervention.
The sight of allegedly sophisticated politicians parroting complete tripe trivialises and demeans government and it has to be stopped. It's played a significant part in public disillusionment with politics and has led to the absurd situation where more people vote for 'Strictly Come Dancing' than voted in the general election.
I don't think nations can stand aside for ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Whether you agree with me or disagree with me; like me or loathe me, don't bind my hands when I am negotiating on behalf of the British nation.
There is no kind of framework within which we can find consciousness in the plural; this is simply something we construct because of the temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false construction... The only solution to this conflict insofar as any is available to us at all lies in the ancient wisdom of the Upanishad.
I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.
Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult - at least I have found it so - than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind...We behold the face of nature bright with gladness...We do not see, or we forget, that the birds which are idly singing round us mostly live on insects and seeds, and are thus constantly destroying life.
For you know only a heap of broken images
Song of God and Son of Man, there He hangs, bearing pains unutterable, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.
The impulse to cruelty is, in many people, almost as violent as the impulse to sexual love - almost as violent and much more mischievous.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.