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The Russians are not going to do what we want them to do because we want them to do it.

Brent Scowcroft

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Brent Scowcroft
Age: 95 †
Born: 1925
Born: March 19
Died: 2020
Died: August 6
Former National Security Advisor
Geopolitician
Military Officer
Politician
Ogden
Utah
Russians
Going

More quotes by Brent Scowcroft

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The Iraqi elections were an important first step.
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The Iraqis need help establishing a government. We have to provide them with security.
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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 never recognized that Iran lives in a dangerous neighborhood. And it's not surprising that they want some protection. 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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You know, different people are going to react different ways. And I don't think we should be intolerable because people do things a little differently.
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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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America wants to work with friends, with allies, with people of good will, to make this a better world.
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We can't make China a friend, but we can behave to make them an enemy.
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Many Sunnis, who are still stuck in the Saddam era mindset and believe Iraq belongs to them, are trying to prevent a new country from developing at all.
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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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For most of mankind, the average person knew what was happening in his own village and the next one, and nothing beyond that, and he didn't care, so that leaders were able to guide their countries almost irrespective of what people really thought because they weren't involved in it. Now, everybody knows what's happening instantaneously.
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The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.
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Yes, Israel's our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
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Information technology has politicized the world's population.
Brent Scowcroft
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Perhaps the most troubling area in the world goes from the Balkans through the Middle East and in Central Asia.
Brent Scowcroft
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But figuring out Saddam Hussein was one our greatest mysteries. He marched to his own drummer and frequently as this unfolded he made decisions which were sometimes inexplicable to us and sometimes didn't look very smart.
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An idea can be as flawless as can be, but its execution will always be full of mistakes.
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Everybody is within reach of a television set. And so they're all politicized, and they're all stimulated, and then they have these desires, pleasures, hates, resentments, and so on, and they're reacting instantaneously.
Brent Scowcroft
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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.
Brent Scowcroft
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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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