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.
Nobody at any time is cut off from God.
He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.
How do you know that you are not part of a book? That someone's not reading your story right now?
Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth and the soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height.
One curiosity of being a foreigner everywhere is that one finds oneself discerning Edens where the locals see only Purgatory.
In cases of major discrepancy its always reality thats got it wrong ... reality is frequently inaccurate.
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