America is stronger than any state probably since the Roman Empire. But we can’t do what used to be done with that kind of strength.
BRENT SCOWCROFTSaddam’s ouster will not necessarily lead to the same result, since Iraq lacks democratic traditions. Democracy doesn’t just consist of holding elections.
More Brent Scowcroft Quotes
-
-
The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
The radical elements in Islam are very dangerous. They want to achieve a return to the Islamic purity of the Middle Ages.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
Since the days of Peter the Great, Russians have been maybe Europeans who didn’t share in the enlightenment and the reformation, or are they Mongol Asians with the European veneer. And they’ve gone back and forth.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
I don’t think the Chinese look out at the world and want to overturn the system.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
Russia right now is searching for its soul. It’s trying to figure out what it really is.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
Who is the guarantor, if there is one, of a more stable world? It’s the United States.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
It is beyond dispute that Saddam Hussein is a menace.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
Saddam’s ouster will not necessarily lead to the same result, since Iraq lacks democratic traditions. Democracy doesn’t just consist of holding elections.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
America has never seen itself as a national state like all others, but rather as an experiment in human freedom and democracy.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
The radical elements in Islam are very dangerous.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
We have not been forthcoming about explaining a security relationship for the region, in which Iran can feel secure and thus maybe willing to do something.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
But, if you believe we should go around the world overturning regimes to make little United States, I don’t agree with that, because I don’t think we’re capable of doing that.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
Much of what we know about mathematics and trade comes from the Arabs. Then came stagnation, and now they’re the West’s whipping boy. This is a problem that cannot be solved overnight, and certainly not militarily.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
If you look back at the first Gulf war, the Arabs sent forces, they sent money. So their interests in Iraq are clear, but they’re nowhere to be seen now. Why? Because right now, it’s dangerous to be seen as supporting the United States.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
I’m afraid that the United States is more isolated today than at any other time in my memory.
BRENT SCOWCROFT