Afghanistan's borders are arbitrary, drawn to meet 19th-century political needs rather than to respect ethnic or religious patterns.
Stephen KinzerRead
Want to depose the government of a poor country with resources? Want to bash Muslims? Want to build support for American military interventions around the world? Want to undermine governments that are raising their people up from poverty because they don't conform to the tastes of Upper West Side intellectuals? Use human rights as your excuse!
Interpretation
This quote criticizes the use of human rights as a pretext for geopolitical interventions.
Stephen Kinzer's quote emphasizes how the notion of human rights can be manipulated to justify political actions that serve the interests of powerful nations. It highlights the hypocrisy in using human rights rhetoric as a cover for undermining governments that strive to improve the lives of their citizens, particularly when those governments do not align with Western ideologies or interests.
In practice
In a speech addressing the complexities of foreign aid, this quote can illustrate the potential misuse of human rights rhetoric.
Afghanistan's borders are arbitrary, drawn to meet 19th-century political needs rather than to respect ethnic or religious patterns.
Guerrilla leaders win wars by being paranoid and ruthless. Once they take power, they are expected to abandon those qualities and embrace opposite ones: tolerance, compromise and humility. Almost none manages to do so.
Rwanda has emerged from the devastation of genocide and become more secure and prosperous than anyone had a right to expect.
Accepting that Arabs have the right to elect their own leaders means accepting the rise of governments that do not share America's pro-Israel militancy.
After installing friendly leaders in Iran and Guatemala, the United States lost interest in promoting democracy in either country.
Every nation, like every individual, would like to believe it owes 'no apology' to anyone. Adults realise, however, that few among us are purely innocent or utterly blameless.
I learned to be far more skeptical of what I'm told by presidents, no matter who the presidents are, and also to be much more cautious, always, in any action or vote that could lead to the use of American military power and most particularly what we call 'boots on the ground.'
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism.
Democracy requires an informed citizenry able to question its government.
The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge.
Elections exist for the sake of the House of Commons and not the House of Commons for the sake of elections.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
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