Porter Goss: “I want to speak about foreign policy, a very difficult and delicate task these days. If it were an easy subject, I do…”

“I want to speak about foreign policy, a very difficult and delicate task these days. If it were an easy subject, I do not think the Nation's first President would have encouraged us to avoid foreign entanglements altogether, but it is precisely because it is difficult and because risks to Americans and our interests are so great that we have got to exercise all due care and diligence of an exercise of American foreign policy, and that particularly means using our troops and putting them in harm's way. A successful foreign policy is built on clearly articulating American interests and having the willingness to fight for those interests when and how best appropriate. In other words, knowing what we are doing, looking before we leap. A successful foreign policy is not built on photo opportunities, it is not built on eroding American capability by saying one thing and then doing another. And most certainly it is not built on appeasement. Most Americans follow international events through the media. The press tends to provide us snapshots of what is going on in the world other than of course the sensational topic du jour that we read about inside the Beltway. The snapshots that have made their way through the haze lately, from Russia to Haiti to Bosnia to Sudan to Iraq, North Korea, to the Middle East are indeed a cause for a great deal of concern.”