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 SCOWCROFTTo 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.
More Brent Scowcroft Quotes
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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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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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The Iraqis need help establishing a government. We have to provide them with security.
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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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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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Europeans are familiar with terrorism and violence. We have not experienced a true conflict on our soil in a hundred years, and especially not one that involved 3,000 dead.
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The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.
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After all, we didn’t bring democracy to Germany in 1945; Hitler destroyed democracy there first.
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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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Saddam’s ouster will not necessarily lead to the same result, since Iraq lacks democratic traditions. Democracy doesn’t just consist of holding elections.
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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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America wants to work with friends, with allies, with people of good will, to make this a better world.
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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.
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I think America has to do more than be a broker now. Because both the Palestinians are weak and Israel is very weak.
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Who is the guarantor, if there is one, of a more stable world? It’s the United States.
BRENT SCOWCROFT