The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border of Afghanistan, I wrote to President Jimmy Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKIIn the longer run, I happen to think that Russia really has no choice but to become gradually more associated with the Euro-Atlantic community. Because if it isn’t, then it’s going to find itself essentially facing China all by itself, facing the Euro-Atlantic community all by itself.
More Zbigniew Brzezinski Quotes
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I think it is important to ask ourselves as citizens, not as Democrats attacking the administration, but as citizens, whether a world power can really provide global leadership on the basis of fear and anxiety?
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The kind of problem that America faces in Iraq is a little bit the kind of problem that Israel faced in dealing with Hezbollah. If the conflict, the theater of conflict enlarges, it’s going to become more and more absorbing and more and more costly.
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I was confident about America and the idea that in America people can become American without masking their ethnic identity.
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Though Stalinism may have been a needless tragedy for both the Russian people and communism as an ideal, there is the intellectually tantalizing possibility that for the world at large it was, as we shall see, a blessing in disguise.
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Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.
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But if Russia is to be part of this larger zone of peace it cannot bring into it its imperial baggage. It cannot bring into it a policy of genocide against the Chechens, and cannot kill journalists, and it cannot repress the mass media.
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For people of different faiths to coexist, it’s going to take maturity, wisdom, and patience. All of which come, eventually, with tolerance. And it’s a process of time.
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I happen to think that as the Ukraine moves to the West, towards the E.U., eventually towards NATO, it will pave the way also for Russia moving towards the West. Because it will become a logical extension of the same process, and it will eliminate any imperial ambitions.
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Bipartisanship helps to avoid extremes and imbalances. It causes compromises and accommodations. So let’s cooperate.
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Today it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to control one million people.
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In Iraq we must succeed. Failure is not an option.
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The scope of America’s global hegemony is admittedly great, but its depth is shallow, limited by both domestic and external restraints.
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Henceforth, the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America’s status as a global power.
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It certainly would be possible for America to redefine its role in the world, especially if, in the short run, America is able to cope effectively with the ongoing dilemma in the Middle East.
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Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI