Diplomacy
Page 6
- [Putin] is a bully. And bullies only understand when we punch them in the nose, but we need to do that economically.
- There would be some price to pay for this country and our allies…But there is a huge price to pay for allowing aggressive bullying behavior to continue…History teaches us that we have to stand up to such bullying behavior from one state on to another.
- We all accuse Vladimir Putin of Cold War nostalgia, but Washington’s elites — politicians and intellectuals — miss the old days as well. They wish for the world in which the United States was utterly dominant over its friends, its foes were to be shunned entirely, and the challenges were stark, moral, and vital. Today’s world is messy and complicated. China is one of our biggest trading partners and our looming geopolitical rival. Russia is a surly spoiler, but it has a globalized middle class and has created ties in Europe.
- The relationship has truly been fine. Our defense cooperation and intelligence sharing, which has been substantial in both directions, and our work on anti-missile and anti-rocket defense have been very good. And this work continues under Chuck Hagel and President Obama - and I’m pleased with that. That doesn’t mean we can’t have differences of opinion on Iran.
- A Palestinian has built this home with his money. Are Israelis expecting him to leave just like that?
- Israel is now an instrument in the hands of Hamas, not the opposite. Hamas doesn't care if its population suffers under the attacks or not, because the population is suffering anyway. Hamas doesn't really care about their own casualties either. They want to achieve something that will change the situation in Gaza.
- The ongoing war in Afghanistan is being imposed on us, and Afghans are being sacrificed in it for someone else's interests. We are not blocking the interests of the United States or other major powers. But we are demanding that if you consider Afghanistan the place from which to advance your interests, then you should also pay attention to Afghanistan’s interests.
- While the president is happy to negotiate with Vladimir Putin, he won't engage with congress.
- The foundations of equal rights are threatened by the hyper-sexualization that touched children between six and twelve years old.
- Putin stepped in, but he didn’t step in to save Barack Obama. Putin stepped in to maximize Russian influence in the Middle East. That is, strategically, a defeat for the United States.
- And, as a consequence of the pressure that we've applied over the last couple of weeks, we have Syria -- for the first time -- acknowledging that it has chemical weapons, agreeing to join the convention that prohibits the use of chemical weapons, and the Russians -- their primary sponsors -- saying that they will push Syria to get all of their chemical weapons out. The distance that we've traveled over these couple of weeks is remarkable.
- Opposition is different from terrorism. Opposition is a political movement. Opposition doesn't mean to take-- armament and kill people and destroy everything. Do you call the people in Los Angeles in the '90s, do you call them rebels or opposition? What would the British call the rebels less than two years ago in London? Do-- did they call them opposition or rebels? Why should we call them opposition? They are rebels. They are not rebels even, they are terror-- they are behaving-- this opposition, opposing country or government by behaving by barbecuing head, by eating the hearts of your victim? Is that opposition?