Michael Isikoff Quotes

He was arrested and jailed. However, often the coups leaders give the president the choice of either resigning or committing suicide if they do not murder him directly.

This quotation illustrates a great problem with treaties in international law. Here an opponent of the Egyptian regime and one who disapproves of the regime before it, wants to repudiate the treaties that had been signed by previous Egyptian governments. So when there is a regime change, can a new regime repudiate earlier treaties? International law says no, but if a new government refuses to follow its obligations, then it is left to the other treaty partners to put pressure on them--breaking diplomatic relations, trade sanctions, even war. For example, President Thomas Jefferson made a treaty with the French Dictator Napoleon and bought the Louisiana Territory which includes a number of current American states. If a new French government abrogated the treaty of the dictator on the grounds that it did not represent the will of the French people and tried to take back their land, war could ensue. Nations very rarely repudiate treaties for if they did, who would sign any new ones?

Referring to his refusal to resign amidst accusations of impropriety:

On his trip to Germany, Reagan was invited to lay a memorial wreath at the German military cemetery in Bitberg. His staff assistant Michael Deaver had set the trip up but did not know that German Waffen SS Officers were also buried at the cemetery along with the far more numerous Wehrmacht. American Jews and Veterans Groups protested this honor to the SS murderers of millions of people including American prisoners of war. The proposed trip was covered very heavily by the press and editorials throughout the country called for the President to cancel the cemetery part of his trip. He did not. This quotation shows how symbols can take on a meaning that was never intended by the parties.

The irony of this quotation is that in later years, Sanford, was involved in his own sex scandal. Sanford refused to resign - see related quote.

After coming to power in a coup, he had been in office for 22 years, and had been elected in less than "fres and fair" elections. As in many dictatorial nations, the ruler so contols the media and surpresses significant opposition so that he can obtain the "ligitimacy" of having been elected. However in 2016, despit his control of the entire system, public opinion was so much against him, that even with the various devices and artifices to control; the election, he lost. His repose was to claim that the election was fraudulent and tained and pointed to evidence of such. However the actions he claimed tainted the elections were all done by his minions tryiing to rig the election in his favor.