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.
BRENT SCOWCROFTSaddam’s ouster will not necessarily lead to the same result, since Iraq lacks democratic traditions. Democracy doesn’t just consist of holding elections.
More Brent Scowcroft Quotes
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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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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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If Iraq were to descend into chaos, the Europeans would feel the effects just as much as we would.
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Russia right now is searching for its soul. It’s trying to figure out what it really is.
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Yes, Israel’s our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
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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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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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Who is the guarantor, if there is one, of a more stable world? It’s the United States.
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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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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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Progress is only possible if the United States and its allies work together.
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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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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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Democracy doesn’t just consist of holding elections.
BRENT SCOWCROFT