Michael Hayden Quotes
Our inaction created the opportunity for the Russians to reenter the Middle East in a powerful way for the first time since 1973.
Hayden, Michael V. Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror. Penguin Press, 2016.
Most experts believe that this objective was sustained all through the Afghanistan War in the early 21st century.
Al Qada and Taliban insurgents fighting in Afghanistan had a sanctuary for training and resupply in the rugged mountains of Pakistan near the Afghan border. Many American military and policy makers believed that we did need Pakistan to close down the sanctuaries and lines of supply if the war was to end. However, the Pakistanis, as Mr. West stated, extracted much from the United States while at the same time, not only refusing to try to control their frontier, but several elements of the Pakistani government were actually assisting the Taliban and Al Qada while taking U. S. Military Aid to suppress them.
This quotation illustrates the derogatory and disrespectful attitude that many high level American officials then had towards Arab leaders. No one objected to or reprimanded Symmes for his use of the word “mongrels”. And he was the State Departments leading expert on the Middle East and Arab Cultures. In the photo, Symmes is the gentlemen on the right.
Ironically, at the time she wrote this column, Mrs. Roosevelt was being accused of being a communist by some Southerners who associated her strong views against racism and segregation. Some in the North thought she was a communist because of her active role in the New Deal, Yet here she was, willing to use military force to prevent Soviet expansion.
Michael Vincent Hayden is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Hayden currently co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center's Electric Grid Cyber Security Initiative. In 2017, Hayden became a national security analyst for CNN.
