The Iraqis need help establishing a government. We have to provide them with security.
BRENT SCOWCROFTAfter all, we didn’t bring democracy to Germany in 1945; Hitler destroyed democracy there first.
More Brent Scowcroft Quotes
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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 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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Information technology has politicized the world’s population.
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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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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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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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Yes, Israel’s our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
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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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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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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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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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I’m afraid that the United States is more isolated today than at any other time in my memory.
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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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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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It’s not for nothing that the Iranians are known as rug merchants. They are.
BRENT SCOWCROFT