William Brink Quotes

President George W. Bush had forestalled the Automobile Industry bankruptcy so that incoming President Obama could organize a rescue and reform of the industry. This was very effective and the industry was more profitable than ever in a few years. Romney however, had already changed his political persona from his previous moderate Republican to the hard right ideological base of the Republican party. In the election of 2012, he lost every Midwestern state whose economy was dependent on the auto industry, even though a number of them had elected Republican Governors and legislatures. This quotation was the subject of tens of thousands of pro-Obama campaign commercials. It made Romney’s last minute attempt to morph back to being a moderate seem silly in those Midwestern states.

As Secretary of State, Powell was going to address the UN Security Council on the 5th and he was coordinating his speech with the other agencies of the government. His criterion was that he only wanted to make accusations that were backed up by incontrovertible evidence. However, VP Richard Cheney and his aide, Scooter Libby, kept inserting an accusation that Iraq was involved with and supported Al Qaeda. This was one of the many speculations that those who wanted to justify attacking Iraq kept using as Domestic propaganda. When Powell asked for proof or intelligence reports and none could be provided, he removed the accusation from the speech explaining why. However, at the last minute, Cheney and his staff put the accusation back in, and that triggered the quotation. Unfortunately, Powell was so busy fending off totally absurd accusations, that he accepted the CIA assurances {79468} that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons that were about to be operationalized and never heard from those who questioned the credibility of the sources for the basic accusation. Powell had great trust among the diplomats of the world then gave the United States version to the Security Council and justified our coming invasion of Iraq. But the intelligence report, despite the assurances of the CIA and the Vice President, was false and Iraq not only was not close to a nuclear weapon but he had no program at all at that time to try and develop one. Powell resigned and his credibility about the world was ruined as he was then seen as just another lying politician.

After being surrounded by the Germans for seven days at what would later be called the Battle of the Bulge, a German officer notified the Americans that they would accept their surrender. McAuliffe’s one word response summed up the resolve of the Americans who were surrounded. The Americans managed to hold the line and defeat the German’s last major offensive of World War II.

John Lamb, a Patriot Rebel leader of an artillery unit, we trying to move cannon from the Battery in lower Manhattan to the North so as not to fall into the hands of the British and could be used by General Washington. The officers of the Asia, lying off Wall Street, saw this and fired a 32 gun broadside of huge shells to stop them. However, they could not. Incredibly no one was killed but this and other military operations caused an evacuation of over 40 percent of the New York City population by the end of 1775.