Brent Scowcroft

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. ”

First of all, I think the Saudis are deeply concerned about the collapse of negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians and the resumption of conflict. ”

Saddam's ouster will not necessarily lead to the same result, since Iraq lacks democratic traditions. Democracy doesn't just consist of holding elections. ”

America has never seen itself as a national state like all others, but rather as an experiment in human freedom and democracy. ”

After all, we didn't bring democracy to Germany in 1945; Hitler destroyed democracy there first. ”

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. ”

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. ”

Saddam is a familiar dictatorial aggressor, with traditional goals for his aggression. ”

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. ”

So far the changes in the president in his second term have been mainly of a rhetorical nature. ”