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I think that America is a part of the world, that we want to cooperate with the world. We are not the dominant power in the world, that everyone falls in behind us. But we want to reach out and cooperate.

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
Fall
Part
Cooperate
Power
Dominant
America
Falls
Think
Reach
Thinking
Behinds
World
Behind
Everyone

More quotes by Brent Scowcroft

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Who is the guarantor, if there is one, of a more stable world? It's the United States.
Brent Scowcroft
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Yes, Israel's our ally. But, are the Palestinians our enemy? No, they are not.
Brent Scowcroft
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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.
Brent Scowcroft
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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
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Osama bin Laden is going after us to get us out of the region, so he can deal with the regimes that he sees in the region, or replace them with purists.
Brent Scowcroft
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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.
Brent Scowcroft
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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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I think above all, what we need with Iran is patience.
Brent Scowcroft
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But, 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 Scowcroft
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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.
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.
Brent Scowcroft
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If Iraq were to descend into chaos, the Europeans would feel the effects just as much as we would.
Brent Scowcroft
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The radical elements in Islam are very dangerous.
Brent Scowcroft
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The Europeans must finally understand the incredible shock triggered by the attacks of September 11.
Brent Scowcroft
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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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The art of diplomacy is to take an opportunity and turn it into something.
Brent Scowcroft
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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.
Brent Scowcroft
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The Iraqi elections were an important first step.
Brent Scowcroft
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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.
Brent Scowcroft
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America wants to work with friends, with allies, with people of good will, to make this a better world.
Brent Scowcroft