The first thing to recognize not just about Afghanistan but about any poor undeveloped country is that as big as it looks on the map, it's much bigger when you're there.
Robert D. KaplanRead
Wherever you have weakening states and turmoil, you will have a fertile petri dish for terrorism.
Interpretation
Turbulent environments often breed conditions that foster terrorism.
This quote by Robert D. Kaplan suggests that areas experiencing instability and chaos are more likely to become breeding grounds for terrorism. When states are weak and plagued by disorder, it creates an environment where extremist ideologies can flourish, taking advantage of the void left by ineffective governance and societal unrest.
In practice
During a speech on national security, the leader referenced Kaplan's quote to emphasize the need for strong international cooperation.
The first thing to recognize not just about Afghanistan but about any poor undeveloped country is that as big as it looks on the map, it's much bigger when you're there.
What does the earth look like in the places where people commit atrocities? Is there a bad smell, a genius loci, something about the landscape that might incriminate?
Dawn came and matters were worse for it. Because now, emerging from the darkness, I could see, what before I had only felt, the great curtains of rain crashing down on me from towering heights and the waves that threw a path over me and trod me underfoot one after another.
It is an item of faith that we are children of God; there is plenty of experience in us against it. The faith that surmounts this evidence and is able to warm itself at the fire of God's love, instead of having to steal love and self-acceptance from other sources, is actually the root of holiness: It is a fatal mistake to think of holiness as a possession which we have distinct from our faith... Faith is the very highest form of our dependence on God.
What Must I Do to Be Saved? It is impossible to ask a more weighty Question! It is deplorable that we hear it asked with no more Frequency, with nor more Agony.
In journalism, we recognize a kind of hierarchy of fame among the famous. We measure it in two ways: by the length of an obituary and by how far in advance it is prepared. Presidents, former presidents, and certain heads of state are at the top of the chain.
I love and treasure individuals as I meet them, I loath and despise the groups they identify or belong to.
The essence of independence has been to think and act according to standards from within, not without.
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