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.
BRENT SCOWCROFTAfter 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.
More Brent Scowcroft Quotes
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Yes, Israel’s our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
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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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Information technology has politicized the world’s population.
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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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After all, we didn’t bring democracy to Germany in 1945; Hitler destroyed democracy there first.
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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’m afraid that the United States is more isolated today than at any other time in my memory.
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But the central point is that any campaign against Iraq, whatever the strategy, cost and risks, is certain to divert us for some indefinite period from our war on terrorism.
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The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.
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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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The Iraqis need help establishing a government. We have to provide them with security.
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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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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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Russia right now is searching for its soul. It’s trying to figure out what it really is.
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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.
BRENT SCOWCROFT