I think America has to do more than be a broker now. Because both the Palestinians are weak and Israel is very weak.
BRENT SCOWCROFTBut, 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.
More Brent Scowcroft Quotes
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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.
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Russia right now is searching for its soul. It’s trying to figure out what it really is.
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Who is the guarantor, if there is one, of a more stable world? It’s the United States.
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Yes, Israel’s our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
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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.
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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.
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After the ’30s, we said, “no more Munichs.” And it got us in a lot of problems. Then we said, “No more Vietnams.” Now if we say, “No more Iraqs,” the next one won’t be an Iraq. It will be something different. You can’t learn lessons.
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The radical elements in Islam are very dangerous. They want to achieve a return to the Islamic purity of the Middle Ages.
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Progress is only possible if the United States and its allies work together.
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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.
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But the central point is that any campaign against Iraq, whatever the strategy, cost and risks, is certain to divert us for some indefinite period from our war on terrorism.
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It is beyond dispute that Saddam Hussein is a menace.
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I don’t think the Chinese look out at the world and want to overturn the system.
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To sum up, the position we took was that since we didn’t know the internal situation in Iraq nor Saddam Hussein, that our best bet was to take counsel from the people who did know him and who did deal with him.
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America has never seen itself as a national state like all others, but rather as an experiment in human freedom and democracy.
BRENT SCOWCROFT