Janeane Garofalo Quotes

Roosevelt was the one who had the vision to change our policy from isolationism to world leadership. That was a terrific revolution. Our country's never been the same since.

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.

People make mistakes. And one of the mistakes that the United States consistently made was that it could intervene and somehow adjust people's governments, especially in the Middle East.

I don’t think America wants democracies in the Middle East. They wouldn’t be nearly as friendly to us

Unilateralism and isolationism are ideological twins.

... you may be sure there will be no jingo nonsense under my administration.

It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.”

U. S. foreign policy in the 20th century was characterized by disastrous oscillations between over-commitment and isolation

What takes place in America today was caused by the flagrant interference on the part of successive American governments into others’ business. These governments imposed regimes that contradict the faith, values, and lifestyle of the people.

If our founding fathers wanted us to care about the rest of the world, the wouldn't have declared their independence from it.

In both British and American history, fervent imperialism has always coexisted with bouts of fierce isolationism.

...though it is England's right to enforce the law of Europe [i.e. treaties] as between contending states, she has no claim, so long as her own interests are untouched, to interfere in the national affairs of any country, whatever the extent of its misgovernment or its anarchy.

It’s not America’s job to fix the Middle East. Our job is to look after our own interests..

I am so angry with that infernal, little, Cuban republic that I would like to wipe its people off the face of the earth. All that we wanted from them is that they would behave themselves and be prosperous and happy so that we would not have to interfere.

As long as Americans believe that their country has vital interests everywhere on earth, they will behave the same.

The historical ambivalence of the United States toward global engagement is a thread that runs through American history.

Making the case for sustained U. S. [world] leadership is not always easy. Unilateralism or isolationism often make for better sound bites.

I'm a little disappointed in what's happened. I'm beginning to lose faith in Obama. This Syria thing is ridiculous. He should not be drawing red lines.

President Obama came to office with a strong belief that America had overreached, that we had become too involved. It matched the national mood, and indeed, there was some evidence that it was true.

I'm no friend of Tony Blair's and I consider the Middle East policies of the United States and the UK fatal.

I don't want a political party in my government that interferes in Arab countries against other Arab countries.

Too close and unthinking an allegiance to Washington has sometimes got British governments into trouble.

We've gone too far in thinking we can re-create an American democratic paradise in the Middle East.

That's the problem with the United States. It believes it can control everybody's behavior.

It seems the most common thing for serial interventionists to do these days is to lob the term 'isolationist' at anyone who does not agree with their latest folly, and then set up a straw man about those people not wanting to be involved in the world.