Political Quotes

“the news from Russia remains grim. The Times reported on Saturday: Rocked by its worst harvest in 45 years and a plummeting ruble, Russia appealed today for relief aid from the European Union. It has also approached the United States and Canada for help. Clearly Russia is in a perilous--one could say dangerous--state. The grain harvest is down almost 40 percent primarily because of a summer drought in the Volga River and Ural regions. And the financial crisis in Russia has only added to the problems. For example the Times also reports that because payment has not been made ``15 ships full of American frozen poultry have delayed unloading their cargo.'' What to do? For starters let's not repeat the mistakes of the past. Following the defeat of Germany in World War I, we failed to provide aid to the Weimar Republic as it attempted to sustain a democratic government. The resulting Nazi reign of terror was both devastating and unspeakable. By contrast, following the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, we adopted the Marshall Plan to rebuild a democratic Germany. From 1948 to 1952, the United States gave almost $3 billion a year to fund the Marshall Plan. A comparable contribution in round numbers, given the current size of the United States economy, would be about $100 billion a year for five years. Recognize that Russia, no less than Nazi Germany, is a defeated nation--the latter on the military battlefield, the former on the economic battlefield.”