George W. Bush Quotes

I think our Cuban policy is insane…. I guess it’s the politics of Florida. The Cold War is long since over. Our embargo just lets Castro blame his troubles on us.. Just lift the embargo and let people do as they wish.

For some reason, we can't go to Cuba, businesses in American can't do business in Cuba. I think that that is stupid. So I hope very much and applaud the president for his efforts in that direction and hope that in the not-too-distant future, that if I have anything to say about it as president, we will work aggressively to develop normal relations in every respect with the people of Cuba.

I think a policy of isolationism toward Cuba is misplaced and hasn't worked.

Ten Presidents have tried to do something about Cuba and the statis is quo.

You don’t have a democracy. Most Americans want good relations with Cuba, but a few thousand Cuban-American right-wingers control U.S. policy and make everything between us bad.

I was only helping your country enforce the Embargo Act.

… the financial cost of a [military] strike isn’t a reason to acquiesce in mass murder in Syria.

The question really is what action we take which lessens the chances of a nuclear exchange, which obviously is the final failure…. You have:, A blockade without any declaration of war A blockade with a declaration of war Strikes One, Two and Three We’ve got invasion

The U.S. trade embargo on Cuba is almost completely ineffective, as many other countries, including the European Union, do not honor it.

Unilateral sanctions on Cuba have been oppressive and largely ineffective, and that's why the public largely supports lifting them.

The sanctions which the West introduced against Russia seriously affect us.

I've never been against doing business with Cuba.

In terms of the nature of the continuation of the Cold War, which has gone on so long between Cuba and the United States, I applaud the president for aggressively trying to end it and I hope we will have not only full diplomatic relations, but that the trade embargo will end.

The claims of no people, according to established policy and usage, are respected by any nation, until they are presented in a national capacity.

We cannot permit hostage taking to shape the foreign policy of this country.

What always happens if you have automatic sanctions legislation is it puts enormous pressure on whoever is in the executive branch to fudge an evaluation of the facts.

A policy which rules out and all moral purpose except national interest has a fatal lack of what is essential to enduring success.

It’s much easier to have an attitude … than a policy.

A policy that can be accurately, though perhaps not prudently, defined as one of “peaceful co-existence.”

[Referring to Cuba:] I speak not of forcible annexation, for that cannot be thought of. That by our code of morality would be criminal aggression.

There's too little sense in the State Department of why things happened.

A good policy badly executed becomes a bad policy.

We must not be shocked into impotence because we are afraid of the difficulty of the alternatives facing us.

A great many people simply do not at this moment see that Cuba presents so grave and compelling a threat to our national security as to justify a course of action which much of the world will interpret as calculated aggression against a small nation.

Wherever people are free, foreign and domestic policy are inseparable.