Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroftis a retired United States Air Force Lieutenant General. He was the United States National Security Advisor under U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. He also served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs in the Nixon and Ford administrations. He served as Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005 and assisted President Barack Obama...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPublic Servant
Date of Birth19 March 1925
CountryUnited States of America
Brent Scowcroft quotes about
A number of presidents since Nixon have come to office with negative views of the Chinese. They always end up supporting the thrust of the policy established by President Nixon.
But there is scant evidence to tie Saddam to terrorist organizations, and even less to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Democracy doesn't just consist of holding elections.
The radical elements in Islam are very dangerous. They want to achieve a return to the Islamic purity of the Middle Ages.
It is beyond dispute that Saddam Hussein is a menace.
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.
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.
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.
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.
America has never seen itself as a national state like all others, but rather as an experiment in human freedom and democracy.
The radical elements in Islam are very dangerous.
The UN could help the Iraqi government get on its feet and help the United States withdraw a bit more.
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.
We must find out where the roots of terrorism lie.