SANDY BERGER

There's been a deliberate and systematic effort to convey to countries around the world, friends and foes, that if they cross the United States there's a price to pay.

In international affairs, you never threaten things you're not prepared to do.

We have a growing interest in Africa’s success.

We want to resolve this peacefully but if we can’t, there are some things worth fighting for.

Although globalization is inexorable, its benefits are not.

Globalization has raised the strategic cost of indifference to local conflict …. Today we can choose not to act, but we can no longer choose not to know.

Local conflicts can have global consequences.

Not every time there's a disagreement is somebody lying.

More than one billion people in the world live on a dollar a day or less. Nothing keeps them poor more than barriers and subsidies in wealthy countries, which cost the developing world much more than it gets in aid.

Our success is now so apparent to others that one of our biggest challenges now is to manage the resentment it sometimes generates.

Peace and security for the United States depend on building principled, constructive, clear-eyed relations with our former great-power adversaries.

That is where American foreign policy begins—with the interest, the aspirations, and the values of the American people.

We cannot turn back the tides of globalization any more than King Knute [995-1035] could turn back the tides.

I have come to learn that preliminary judgments are not judgments.

If China can succeed in the next few years, it will transform that country, Asia and the world in ways that will serve our long term interests.

I believe Saddam Hussein's strategic objective was, and remains, to assert dominance over the Gulf region.

We know Saddam Hussein possesses chemical weapons - he has for nearly 20 years as we know only so well from his use of them against his own people and the Iranians. He has deadly stockpiles of biological weapons.

Imagine the consequences if Saddam fails to comply and we fail to act. Saddam will be emboldened, believing the international community has lost its will. He will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. And some day, some way, I am certain, he will use that arsenal again, as he has ten times since 1983.

In the 21st Century, the community of nations may see more and more of this very kind of threat that Iraq poses now - a rogue state with biological and chemical weapons. If we fail to respond, Saddam and all those who follow will believe that they can threaten the security of a vital region with impunity. But if we act now as one, we will send a clear message to would-be tyrants and terrorists that we will do what it takes to protect our security and our freedom in this new era.

[Saddam] Hussein maintains an active and aggressive nuclear weapons program.

For the last eight years, American policy toward Iraq has been based on the direct threat Saddam poses to international security. That threat is clear. Saddam's history of aggression leaves little doubt that he would resume his drive for regional domination and his quest for weapons of mass destruction if he had the chance.

It's not by accident that this has not been resolved in 50 years, but I believe this is the best chance we will have for a long time for there to be a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983.

I believe that a nuclear Iraq can change its fundamental dynamic, affecting how others behave - toward us and toward allies such as Israel - and emboldening Saddam Hussein to believe, rightly or wrongly, that he can attack his neighbors and, because of his nuclear capability, we will hesitate.

Dealing with the threat that Secretaries Albright and Cohen have described, the threat from Saddam Hussein, demands constant resolve by the United States and by the international community; and at times, action. As long as he remains in power, we must be prepared to respond firmly to reckless actions that threaten the region and our interests. We've done that successfully over this decade.