Peacekeeping Quotes

“The words ‘I Love You’ kill, and resurrect millions, in less than a second.”
― Aberjhani, Elemental: The Power of Illuminated Love

“I'm not a natural killer! See this? See what it says? I'm supposed to keep the peace, I am! If I kill people to do it, I'm reading the wrong manual!”
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

“If blue helmeted UN peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, run.”
― Andrew Thomson, Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures) : True Stories from a War Zone

“I'm not a natural killer! See this? See what it says? I'm supposed to keep the peace, I am! If I kill people to do it, I'm reading the wrong manual!”
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

“Prayer is the safest method of replying to a word of hatred.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Based on the English Standard Version

“If blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers show up in your town or village and offer to protect you, run. Or else get weapons. Your lives are worth so much less than theirs.”
― Kenneth Cain, Emergency Sex (And Other Desperate Measures) : True Stories from a War Zone

“Peacekeeping is a soldier-intensive business in which the quality of troops matters as much as the quantity. It is not just soldiering under a different color helmet; it differs in kind from anything else soldiers do. The are medals and rewards (mainly, the satisfaction of saving lives), but there are also casualties. And no victories. It is not a risk -free enterprise. In Bosnia, mines, snipers, mountainous terrain, extreme weather conditions, and possible civil disturbances were major threats that had to be dealt with from the outset of the operation. Dag Hammarskjold once remarked, "Peacekeeping is a job not suited to soldiers, but a job only soldiers can do."

Humanitarianism conflicts with peacekeeping and still more with peace enforcement. The threat of force, if it is to be effective, will sooner or later involve the use of force. For example, the same UN soldiers in Bosnia under a different command and mandate essentially turned belligerence into compliance over night, demonstrating that a credible threat of force can yield results. Unlike, UNPROFOR, the NATO-led Implementation Force was a military success and helped bring stability to the region and to provide an "environment of hope" in which a nation can be reborn. It is now up to a complex array of international civil agencies to assist in putting in place lasting structures for democratic government and the will of the international community to ensure a lasting peace.”
― Larry Wentz

“Life had a hair-trigger feel to it. At any moment any dispute could escalate into shooting”
― R. Quejas-Risdon

“Someone had to show them there was more to life than constant war, that was my mission.”
― R. Quejas-Risdon

“There is no force in the world equal to the U.N. to bring resources and expertise to people in crisis.”
― R. Quejas-Risdon

“At first glance, one might assume that a peacekeeping soldier from Pakistan, a diplomat from the United States, and a human rights advocate from Senegal would approach their jobs quite differently. Yet, while in Congo for a previous research project, I observed striking similarities in the ways that international interveners understand the situations they face and in the strategies they adopt, despite their otherwise extremely different national, professional, social, and economic backgrounds.”
― Severine Autesserre, Peaceland

“Some make bombs for domination,
Some make bombs for survival.
Either way someone pushes a button,
Innocents wind up dead as collateral.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“Two unwritten rules of peacekeeping existed.
You’d expect it would be easy to keep two rules, but I broke the first one.

I had to break it to allow myself to live the passion that drove and controlled me, that distinguished one decision from another and determined where I drew my lines. I broke the rule to remain human.”
― Tammy Pemper, Scorched Earth: Peacekeeping in Timor during a campaign of death and destruction

“But daylight brought with it a wonder. None of us had expected to see it again. And as the darkness lost its intensity, the new beginning carried with it sounds of subdued Timorese chatter. I hadn’t realised I’d started counting survival in hours.”
― Tammy Pemper, Scorched Earth: Peacekeeping in Timor during a campaign of death and destruction

“Until the common civilians become peacemakers and peacekeepers, no United Nations is gonna succeed in making peace.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mücadele Muhabbet: Gospel of An Unarmed Soldier

“Every action creates a reaction. This much is true. The goal here for conflict resolution and peacekeeping purposes is thus to understand what caused the first action; it is Self* which then discovers that there is nothing to argue about nor that there is anything to fight over for One's very own purpose it is Companionship, it is Friendship, it is Love. (* Humanity)”
― Wald Wassermann

“Borders don't preserve peace, borders only breed war. All peace is fiction till we treat every border as Donald Trump's wall.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Amantes Assemble: 100 Sonnets of Servant Sultans

“Attending peace conference to represent a nation, is like attending freedom conference to represent a prison.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“When you love the world like you love your family, that day you'll develop the peacemaker métier.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission

“No matter what, I am not giving up - I am not giving up on this world. Because among all the planets across 2 trillion galaxies in our universe, this apparently insignificant little blue dot is my home - it's my family. And I shall keep fighting, unarmed and unbending, for the rights of my family, for the peace and uplift of my family, so long as the four valves on my left keep working. Fighting is a good thing, if the reason is righteous. And there is no greater reason, no greater cause, to keep fighting, than for the welfare of our family. That is why, I am not giving up - no matter what, I am not giving up. I am not giving up on the welfare of my family - I am not giving up on my humankind.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Her Insan Ailem: Everyone is Family, Everywhere is Home

“Peace is an act of civic duty, not a task for the world leaders.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yarasistan: My Wounds, My Crown

“Peace begins where prejudice ends.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Corazon Calamidad: Obedient to None, Oppressive to None

“Let your existence be not an excuse for war, but a cause for peace. You, my friend - you - not some UN peacekeeper, but you - you the uncommon commoner - you the everyday, ordinary civilian of planet earth is the olympian source of all peace and harmony.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Centurion Sermon: Mental Por El Mundo

“Peace is not an act of words, peace is an act, period.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Her Insan Ailem: Everyone is Family, Everywhere is Home

“Bomb the world with music, pizza and poetry you idiots, not Semtex, C4 and RDX.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“As the tail on our back disappeared as we no longer had any use for it, nuclear weapons will also disappear once we realize, we no longer have any need for them. But no matter how much we daydream, it will never happen as some sort of grand geopolitical gesture of international collaboration - somebody has to take the first step - one nuclear-capable state has to take that first leap of bold faith and naive trust! The question is, who will it be? The first nuclear nation to abandon its nuclear weapons, will be the First Peacemaking Nation of Earth - and their head of state, the First Peacemaker.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“Peace is not the absence of violence, peace is an act of controlled violence.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth

“Unspoken Truths (The Sonnet)

Democracy is people-approved dictatorship,
Military is people-approved genocide.
Atom bombs are people-approved armageddon,
In conscience-court all guilty of homicide.

There is no time left, for there never was time,
Time begins with the beginning of civilization.
And civilization is something we are yet to find,
Hence, there is no question of clock progression.

Nationalist chimps sell war in the name of security,
Stoneage civilians rush to bulk-buy graveyard plots.
Merchant of murder, you, yell about peacekeeping,
While you feast on nationalism like wet little cods!

When cavemen take pride in their national glory of death,
Sanctuary becomes asylum for the lunatic walking dead!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth

“United Nations cannot bring peace, only united humans can.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yarasistan: My Wounds, My Crown

“Nationalist chimps sell war in the name of security,
Stoneage civilians rush to bulk-buy graveyard plots.
Merchant of murder, you, yell about peacekeeping,
While you feast on nationalism like wet little cods!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth