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– Will Ferguson, Why I Hate Canadians

“"Peacekeeping is the ultimate Canadian endeavour. Not just because it is noble and selfless and nice, but because it is such a non-solution.

Rather than confront a problem head on, you diffuse it by creating separate solitudes, by living parallel lives, by maintaining duality and by limiting contact. Sound familiar? It should. It is the very blueprint of our nation. And peacekeeping is simply Canada projected outward onto the world.

In spite of this, perhaps even because of this, peacekeeping is heroic. It is such a lost cause, you have to admire the men and women who are giving it everything they have - up to and including their lives.”

“ Justice will not come to Athens until those who are not injured are as indignant as those who

are.” – Thucydides

– UN News Centre

UN Security Council Resolution 2098, re MONUSCO, Congo

"The intervention brigade will carry out targeted offensive operations, with or without the Congolese national army, against armed groups that threaten peace in the eastern part of DRC – a region that is prone to cycles of violence and consequent humanitarian suffering. 

The objectives of the new force – which will be based in North Kivu province in eastern DRC and total 3,069 peacekeepers – are to neutralize armed groups, reduce the threat they posed to State authority and civilian security and make space for stabilization activities."

“One must always have in mind one simple fact — there is no literate population in the world that is poor, and there is no illiterate population that is anything but poor."

– John Kenneth Galbraith

Social values in Afghanistan

%92"Husband has the right to hit or beat his

wife..."

%78 "...If she goes out without telling him"

%76 "...If she neglects the children"

%63 "...If she argues with him"

%61 "...If she wears immodest clothing"

%46 "...If she refuses sex"

%31 "...If she burns the food"

Source: UNICEF

– Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, March 10, 1975

“I used to say at meetings: The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional

takes a little longer. But since the Freedom of Information Act, I’m afraid to

say things like that.”

“ A people who make a sharp distinction between their warriors and their scholars will have fools for generals and cowards for politicians.”

– Thucydides

–Johnny Appleseed

“Type a quote here.”

“We have lost control of the sea to a nation without a navy, using obsolete weapons, laid by ships in use at the time of Jesus Christ."

- Adm. AE Smith USN, Wonsan Korea1950

 "Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.”- Sir Peter Ustinov

–Johnny Appleseed

“Type a quote here.”

– Vladimir Putin, 2008

“We have moved our troops out of Eastern Europe and got rid of heavy arms in Europe, in general. What did we get in return?

A [U.S.] base in Romania where we are now, a [U.S.] base in Bulgaria and [anti-missile defense] bases in Poland and the Czech Republic,” he said. “Why don’t we talk about this in the open, honestly and directly with all our cards laid out on the table?”

– La Rochefoucauld”

“"Fights would not last if one side only were wrong."

– Daniel Patrick Moynehan

“The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society.  

The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.”

Reading List• Will Ferguson, Why I Hate Canadians

• Carol Off, The Lion, The Fox, and The Eagle

• Franklin Foer, How Soccer Explains the World

• Misha Glenny, McMafia

• Hernando de Soto, The Mystery of Capital

• Bruce Lawrence (Ed.) Messages To The World

• McKinnon, The New Cold War

• Janice Gross Stein & Eugene Lang, The Unexpected War

• Andrew Cohen, While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World

• F. de Pierrebourg & M. Juneau Katsuya, Nest of Spies

• A. Mandel-Campbell, Why Mexicans Don't Drink Molson

“One who knows and knows that he knows... His horse of wisdom will reach the skies. One who knows, but doesn't know that he knows... He is fast asleep, so you should wake him up!  One who doesn't know, but knows that he doesn't know... His limping mule will eventually get him home. One who doesn't know and doesn't know that he doesn't know... He will be eternally lost in his hopeless oblivion!"

- Ibn Yamin (1286)

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