Abba Eban Quotes
It was the most ill-considered statement in the history of diplomacy.
See Cordell Hull quotation, June 21, 1945
Abba Eban, 1915-2002, Foreign Minister of Israel (Labor), Israeli Ambassador to the U.N., Description of Secretary of State Cordell Hull's overly optimistic predictions at the founding of the United Nations, Quoted in Time, October 30, 1995
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Russia then had designs on Afghani Territory. About a century later, Russia Invaded Afghanistan and tried to impose a communist government. It failed and the Afghans drove out the Russians.
This quotation is very interesting in that it shows a President who was not very happy with the policies of his own Secretary of State. This would never have happened overtly after the FDR presidency. Prior, the Secretary of State had a great deal of independence of operation, which was one of the reasons that it was such a prestigious position. However, on modern times President’s would never publicly criticize their own Secretary of State. They would either control the policies directly, accept his/her actions as their own, fire the Secretary, for force him/her to resign as George W, Bush did with Colin Powell. Also, most Secretaries of State, spending most of their time on foreign affairs, become much more sensitive and sophisticated to the intricacies of the world situation, that their nuanced views are very often not viewed by American public opinion as sufficiently pro American. At the same time, there has been a tradition in America that the Secretary of State does not engage in domestic politics, so does not always seem to be pro American.
Karzai was totally corrupt and what was worse maintained his political power by allowing local Governors, mayors, warlords, police and judges to extort bribes for virtually all public services and in many cases extorting money from successful businessmen as well as even poor and middle class families. A large proportion of the money that America and its coalition allies were spending for economic development in Afghanistan was being siphoned out of the country by corrupt officials of the government. Karzai then was the beneficiary of the support of all these corrupt officials in rigging his reelection in what became an embarrassing farce for the coalition. There were others in the administration who believed that there might be enough persuasion to produce change in Karzai, and America and the Coalition had no other better option. Eikenberry not only predicted that there would be no change in the corruption levels, but that the average Afghan people would never really support and fight for the government which proved everyday to anyone who would look that the officials of the country were corrupt and had the support and green light from the President.
Romney who was typically well spoken, very frequently in his campaign speeches and appearances, made statements that were clearly untrue, and even worse statements which reinforced the negative stereotype of a disconnected rich man. Hence the joke about the muzzle.
She was lampooning George W. Bush who had made some recent gaffs.
1st Earl of Beaconsfield. O’Connell was an Irishman.
Bunch was the undersecretary-general of the United Nations who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation efforts in the Middle East. Archie Roosevelt and his extreme right wing associates thought that anyone who worked in the UN was a communist and had no respect for the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee. In the spirit of Archie Roosevelt’s father, the Theodore Roosevelt made the award to Buche and ignored Archie’s slanderous attack. Surprising to most people who know of President Theodore Roosevelt’s general liberal views, his 4th son was an ultraconservative who founded and joined racist, anti-Semitic, right wing organizations, and to the distress of many in the family and without lent his name to many of the most extreme right wing causes and organizations.
The candidates had remarkably little experience in foreign affairs with the exception of Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich who in the extreme right wing ideology driving the Republican primary voters at the time had little chance of winning as they were too far to the left for the Republicans of the time.
Abba Solomon Meir Eban was an Israeli diplomat and politician, and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages.