Richard Holbrooke Quotes

We got involved in the Rwanda peace process for the simple reason that there was a decision which was taken by the Security Council, because the troops were in Uganda, and we decided to have a military presence.

Too often, U.N. peacekeepers face an impossible task in countries that are still at war and where there is no real peace to keep.

The United Nations will be at the heart of our international activities. France will assume its full responsibilities at the Security Council by putting its status at the service of peace, respect for human rights and development.

It is wrong to say the U.S. should 'not take sides' in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

I'm not a war photographer. I've always dealt with the consequences of conflict.

The only foreign policy advice I heard from China was when they said to Sudan, 'Don't go back to war.' That's all they said. They didn't push anything else.

The advance guard in the campaign for peace that America wages today must be the State Department.

I believe sincerely that we should bring in U.N. peacekeepers and bring our troops home.

Standing, as I believe the United States stands for humanity and civilization, we should exercise every influence of our great country to put a stop to that war which is now raging in Cuba and give to that island once more peace, liberty, and independence.

I grew up in war and saw the United Nations help my country to recover and rebuild. That experience was a big part of what led me to pursue a career in public service. As Secretary-General, I am determined to see this organization deliver tangible, meaningful results that advance peace, development and human rights.

War is not the continuation of politics with different means, it is the greatest mass-crime perpetrated on the community of man.

The change began in Somalia, where we discovered that we were involved in an operation where there was no peace, so there was no more a peacekeeping operation because there was no peace.

Well, I think everybody is frustrated by the finances of the U.N. and the inability to solve problems of war and peace.

It seems like such a terrible shame that innocent civilians have to get hurt in wars, otherwise combat would be such a wonderfully healthy way to rid the human race of unneeded trash.

We will do our best to keep the trouble out of the rural areas, but if we fail, widespread massacres are inevitable.

The security agencies are prosecuting the government’s war in Darfur.

I don’t see any role for American peacekeepers in the Middle East because there is no peace to be kept.

Today, member states have asked U. N. forces to go where they have not wanted their own soldiers to venture.

Effective intervention ended Sierra Leone’s civil war, while nonintervention condemned Rwanda to genocide.

If blue-helmeted UN 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.

Syria has become the great tragedy of the century—a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history.

it's a disgrace for the international community that we have allowed so many conflicts to become frozen, and we are not making a serious effort to solve them.

In countries where there are real civil wars, people go through a lot, and we should be willing to go through a lot to help them.

I'm not aiming for the Nobel Peace Prize!

There are lots of countries that are having these kinds of internal civil wars in other parts of the world and nobody is talking about intervening.