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 SCOWCROFTWe 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.
More Brent Scowcroft Quotes
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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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The Iraqis need help establishing a government. We have to provide them with security.
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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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Yes, Israel’s our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
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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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The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.
BRENT SCOWCROFT