On the recordMarch 21, 1994
I wanted to relate a old hunting story. We were talking about selling technologies to our suspected enemies. There is a great and illustrative joke, the story of a hunter who was out hunting when it was cold. He found a frozen snake, and he took the snake home with him. And he heated the snake up by the fireplace and gave him a little water, fed him a mouse. And the snake, sure enough, revived and got alive again. Then one day the man was moving the snake's water dish and the snake bit him. And the hunter said, I do not understand this. I took you in. You were fed. You were frozen. I thawed you out. I fed you, gave you water. The snake shrugged and says, you knew I was a snake. I think that is what we forget in America. Often we think that we can kill our enemies with kindness when, in fact, you cannot reform people who do not want to be your ally. Yet time and time again, we do sell furnaces or other sort of technology to the people who will be after our very own citizens in one form or the other one day.
Source
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