Democracy doesn’t just consist of holding elections.
BRENT SCOWCROFTSince 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.
More Brent Scowcroft Quotes
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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.
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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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The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.
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The radical elements in Islam are very dangerous.
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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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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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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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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.
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If Iraq were to descend into chaos, the Europeans would feel the effects just as much as we would.
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After all, we didn’t bring democracy to Germany in 1945; Hitler destroyed democracy there first.
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It is beyond dispute that Saddam Hussein is a menace.
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Progress is only possible if the United States and its allies work together.
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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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It’s not for nothing that the Iranians are known as rug merchants. They are.
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Yes, Israel’s our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
BRENT SCOWCROFT