Others have stood by passively.

Neither can the international community.

Israel won t stand by and wait for matters to take their course.

I am not suggesting that the government should sit on its hands.

The world watched as thousands of Iraqis were slaughtered.

But it is impossible for politicians to do nothing in such a crisis.

The EU must not stand aside when solidarity is needed.

Global leaders can do more than stand by and watch.

Consider Darfur. The world has largely stood by in the face of genocide.

But we should not sit idly by and refrain from taking sides.

Yet it also seems impossible to stand by while the daily bloodbath continues.

The world should not sit idly by as Iran s regime fails to meet these obligations.

Is the world really going to stand by and watch more children die of starvation?

The democratic world should never stand by idly while a tyrant uses military force to massacre civilians.

The Iranians remember how the international community remained indifferent when Saddam Hussein attacked with chemical weapons in the 1980 s.

But you cannot expect us to stand by and watch the system collapse, causing millions of innocent people to suffer.

Nor is it likely that Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others will sit passively while the Persian Shia gain the bomb.

It is very difficult for a central government to sit on the sidelines when the economy s key players are on the brink of collapse.

Why these Washington politicians are idle while their state slides towards ruin says much about what s broken in American politics.

It is hard to believe that Netanyahu, of all Israeli prime ministers, would be the one to accept idly Iran s entry into the nuclear club.

With the looming prospect of failed states in Iraq and Syria, the international community cannot afford to stay on the sidelines any longer.

The world then watched as the hapless Dutch allowed Mladic s heavily armed Serbs to massacre about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Indeed, if policymakers continue to sit on their hands, it is not hard to imagine a sharp global slowdown or even a devastating financial crisis.

Burma s neighbors in ASEAN should stop looking the other way as Burma s rulers trample on Burma s citizens.

It cannot be right, when the international community is faced with genocide or massive human rights abuses, for the United Nations to stand by and let them unfold to the end (Ibid., para.

All of this, and much more, is needed to send a clear signal to Russia that Europe is unwilling to stand idly by as it returns to great power politics.

But his administration s persistent failure to address the crisis in Syria effectively, along with its backseat approach in Mali, suggests that such concerted multilateralism was an exception.

Instead, regulators stand idly by while bank boards remain self perpetuating clubs, with membership regarded as little more than so much social plumage.

When Lithuania and then the other Baltic States Estonia and Latvia which were occupied by Stalin early in WWII, seized their opportunity for freedom in 1990 91, the Kremlin did not sit on its hands.

The Great Depression of the 1930 s, when the Fed stood idly by as the economy collapsed, is the molding event seared into the consciousness of every American central banker.

Instead, when Iraqi attack helicopters and elite troops began butchering their own people, coalition forces were ordered to stand down. The world watched as thousands of Iraqis were slaughtered.

Although the Islamists are unlikely to interfere in the post Arafat power struggle, they will not sit idly by if the new leadership moves in what they consider the wrong direction.

It cannot be right, when the international community is faced with genocide or massive human rights abuses, for the United Nations to stand by and let them unfold to the end, with disastrous consequences for many thousands of innocent people.

So, what is going on? Emerging countries in Latin America, East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa are innocent bystanders in the tussle between the US and China over currencies and trade imbalances.

The United Nations was called upon to play a key role in that regard to enable peoples to exercise their right to self determination, despite attempts to keep it on the sidelines of the fight against racism and racial discrimination throughout the world.

It is not the innocent victims of repression who are losing their dignity, but rather the international community, whose failure to act means watching helplessly as the victims are consigned to their fate.

Thus, I would confidently lecture only three short years ago that the days when governments could stand back and let the business cycle wreak havoc were over in the rich world.

No government can sit idly by as a country goes into recession or depression, even when caused by the excessive greed of bankers or misjudgment of risks by security markets and rating agencies.

Dutch hostages were taken and threatened with execution. The world then watched as the hapless Dutch allowed Mladic s heavily armed Serbs to massacre about 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Rather than stand on the sidelines and proclaim censorship evil, it is picking its way through the landmines in China competing with a politically well connected rival and politely letting its users know that they aren t always getting the whole picture.

To an outside observer, the psychological barrier that needs to be broken in order to eat something one never thought could be eaten seems hard to overcome.

The rest of the world must not embrace America s unilateral approach the multilateral trade system is too precious to allow it to be destroyed by a US President who has repeatedly shown his contempt for global democracy and multilateralism.

Because the Bush administration took a hands off approach to the Israel Hezbollah war in south Lebanon, and given the military straitjacket the US finds itself in because of the Iraq war, the EU had to take the lead.

In exchange, the world s newest powers must begin to take on a greater share of responsibility for the global order upon which their success depends. They can no longer stand on the sidelines, denouncing the injustices of the past.

With China seeking to secure exclusive access to energy resources in Africa and the Russian energy giant Gazprom seeking de facto control of Western companies by investing billions of euros in them, Europe can no longer afford to take a wait and see approach.