In just one year in Bosnia, thirty of my colleagues died. There is a little Somme waiting for all innocent journalists.
Robert FiskRead
War is primarily not about victory or defeat but about death and the infliction of death. It represents the total failure of the human spirit.
Interpretation
War signifies a profound failure of humanity, focusing on loss rather than glory.
This quote by Robert Fisk highlights the grim reality of war, suggesting that its true essence lies not in the outcomes of victory or defeat, but in the tragic consequences of loss of life. It critiques the glorification of war, framing it as a reflection of humanity's failure to resolve conflicts peacefully and ethically, signaling a dark aspect of the human condition.
In practice
During a speech against militarism, one might use this quote to emphasize the futility of war.
In just one year in Bosnia, thirty of my colleagues died. There is a little Somme waiting for all innocent journalists.
The [Israelis] believed - they were possessed of an absolute certainty and conviction - that 'terrorists' were in Chatila. How could I explain to them that the terrorists had left, that the terrorists had worn Israeli uniforms, that the terrorists had been sent into Chatila by Israeli officers, that the victims of the terrorists were not Israelis but Palestinians and Lebanese?
U.S. journalists I don't think are very courageous. They tend to go along with the government's policy domestically and internationally. To question is seen as being unpatriotic, or potentially subversive.
The biggest problem I have in journalism is being quoted or misquoted and then being asked to defend something I haven't said.
There is nothing so satisfying as to be shot at without effect.
After the allied victory of 1918, at the end of my father's war, the victors divided up the lands of their former enemies. In the space of just seventeen months, they created the borders of Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and most of the Middle East. And I have spent my entire career β in Belfast and Sarajevo, in Beirut and Baghdad β watching the people within those borders burn.
That's all nonviolence is - organized love.
When the supreme magistrate will not execute the judgment of the Lord, those who made him supreme magistrate, under God, who have under God, sovereighn liberty to dispose of crowns and kingdoms, are to execute the judgment of the Lord, when wicked men make the law of God of none effect.
Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.
What pornographic literature does is precisely to drive a wedge between one's existence as a sexual being - while in ordinary life a healthy person is one who prevents such a gap from opening up
Human kind is made up of two sexes, women and men. Is it possible that a mass is improved by the improvement of only one part and the other part is ignored? Is it possible that if half of a mass is tied to earth with chains and the other half can soar into skies?
The dog is the only living being that has found and recognizes an indubitable, tangible and definite god. He knows to whom above him to give himself. He has not to seek for a superior and infinite power.
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