Political Quotes

“I must say that, to me, that did not establish a national security interest. I do not believe we have a national security interest. But your definition that it is there to the extent we use air power but is not there to the extent we use ground forces, that is a fallacious, I say to my good friend, formula. I think a U.S. airman's life, a downed pilot, captured on the ground, is just as valuable as any marine that marches in. So I cannot distinguished between air and ground in terms of the level of our national security interest. I disagree with my good friend that this conflict could destroy U.S. credibility in Europe. We have stood side by side with the Europeans in two major world wars. The Europeans have looked to us for leadership every year since World War II. We have given it time and time again in the form of our support for NATO. Our record is clear. And I do not think this conflict, certainly in the last 2 years, has come to the point where Europe is about to fall, convulse, implode, or otherwise destruct, as a consequence of this tragic conflict. You say 'casualties.' There were tens of thousands of casualties over the past several weeks in Rwanda alone. That is life. There are 36 conflicts in the world today of civil war proportions, with life being lost. We cannot say that because the United States is not involved in those many conflicts, that our credibility is weakened.”