Yes, Israel’s our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
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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I’m afraid that the United States is more isolated today than at any other time in my memory.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
If Iraq were to descend into chaos, the Europeans would feel the effects just as much as we would.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
My point was that removing Saddam should not have been our highest priority. Fighting terrorism should have been our number one concern, followed by the Palestinian peace process.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
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 SCOWCROFT -
After all, we didn’t bring democracy to Germany in 1945; Hitler destroyed democracy there first.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
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.
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 -
Democracy doesn’t just consist of holding elections.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
Who is the guarantor, if there is one, of a more stable world? It’s the United States.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
Information technology has politicized the world’s population.
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 -
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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It’s not for nothing that the Iranians are known as rug merchants. They are.
BRENT SCOWCROFT -
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.
BRENT SCOWCROFT