My own view is that to expel a political asylum-seeker because his country threatens to cancel business contracts with Britain is absolutely wrong. And it is not only wrong but dangerous in the long term to us all. This is because of one of the Laws of Politics that I wrote long ago into my little black notebook: “The way a state treats its aliens is the way it would treat its own subjects if it dared”.
Neal Ascherson (b. 1932) Scottish journalist and writer
“If we teach children morality, what will we say about the arms trade?” The Independent (21 Jan 1996)
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Quotations about:
geopolitics
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Saints can be pure but statesmen must be responsible. As trustees for others, they must defend interests and compromise principles. In politics, practical and prudential judgment must have priority over moral verdicts.
Reading Lenin or Mao or Stalin, one is struck by the emphasis on the relationship between political, military, psychological, and economic factors … and on the need for dominating a situation by flexible tactics and inflexible purpose.
In asymmetric warfare, the moral high ground truly is the defensible position: there is more power in trust than in any weapon. Battles and even wars might be won on the battlefield, but the future is won by the elapsed time between the last American shame and today’s date on the calendar. It is won by using our power to elevate others. It is won by our courage not to back down from our principles in search of an illusion of security. Our real strength isn’t anything that explodes; it’s something that only endures as long as we insist on it.
George Wiman (contemp.) American blogger, computer technician
“Build the Right Monument” (11 Sep 2011)
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