The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.
BRENT SCOWCROFTAmerica wants to work with friends, with allies, with people of good will, to make this a better world.
More Brent Scowcroft Quotes
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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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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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It is beyond dispute that Saddam Hussein is a menace.
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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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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.
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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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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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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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America wants to work with friends, with allies, with people of good will, to make this a better world.
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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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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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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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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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After all, we didn’t bring democracy to Germany in 1945; Hitler destroyed democracy there first.
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It’s not for nothing that the Iranians are known as rug merchants. They are.
BRENT SCOWCROFT