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.
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.
BRENT SCOWCROFTEuropeans 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.
BRENT SCOWCROFTAmerica has never seen itself as a national state like all others, but rather as an experiment in human freedom and democracy.
BRENT SCOWCROFTSince 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 SCOWCROFTThe radical elements in Islam are very dangerous. They want to achieve a return to the Islamic purity of the Middle Ages.
BRENT SCOWCROFTProgress is only possible if the United States and its allies work together.
BRENT SCOWCROFTI’m afraid that the United States is more isolated today than at any other time in my memory.
BRENT SCOWCROFTIt’s not for nothing that the Iranians are known as rug merchants. They are.
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.
BRENT SCOWCROFTThe radical elements in Islam are very dangerous.
BRENT SCOWCROFTDemocracy doesn’t just consist of holding elections.
BRENT SCOWCROFTAfter all, we didn’t bring democracy to Germany in 1945; Hitler destroyed democracy there first.
BRENT SCOWCROFTBut, 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.
BRENT SCOWCROFTThe Iraqis need help establishing a government. We have to provide them with security.
BRENT SCOWCROFTTo 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 SCOWCROFTIt is beyond dispute that Saddam Hussein is a menace.
BRENT SCOWCROFT