Political Quotes

“Well, you know, I've heard that. From the very beginning that was one of the things that was thrown up to me as to why not to use armed force, why I shouldn't commit the forces of the United States on the ground or in the air--the allegation being this will create resentment. There were predictions back then that the whole Arab world would explode in our face and that even the countries that were supporting us in the coalition would peel off. Do you remember the fragility of the coalition days? And that didn't happen. And I think the reason it didn't happen is that people in the Arab world could not condone Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. And then I think they also have seen the brutality--not totally yet because you have some closed societies that have been denied the news. And you have some who have historically been less closed. And I cite Jordan, where the news has been denied or slanted so much that the people haven't been able to make up their own mind. But one of the reasons that there has not been this explosion that had been highly predicted is that these are decent people. And they can't condone in their hearts the brutality of Saddam Hussein. They've known he was the village bully for a long time. They didn't have the wherewithal or the support to stand up against it. Even some of the countries that have been supporting him--they know he's been an evil person. And so I think we're in pretty good shape on this. And I think we've gone out of our way to make clear that our argument was not with the people of Iraq but with this dictator, you see. And I think that's helped a little bit. We've tried to be sensitive to the culture, tried to understand and empathize with the religious persuasions of these people. But there's nothing in Islam that condones the kind of brutality that we've seen from Saddam Hussein. So when he was posturing as a man of religion, it caused unease even from some of his supporters. And I think that's a reason that the Arab world hasn't exploded. And we will go the extra mile to make clear to all these countries that the United States wants to be their friend and that we certainly have respect for their sovereignty and their customs and their traditions and all of that. And that's the way to handle it.”