Anthony Weiner Quotes

Saddam was a bastard, but he was our bastard.

The reason for having diplomatic relations [with Communist China] is not to confer a compliment, but to secure a convenience.... British policy has always been that you recognize when ... Government truly has control. It's not a question of whether you like them or not.

Bush doesn't present himself as a realpolitik politician.

Where defining foreign policy as 'ethical' went wrong was that it implied that all decisions would be exclusive in every respect of any dealings with unethical regimes.

The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural. And that is why we didn't make it.

Very little of what America does is actually bad, and I don't think it ever does anything anywhere that is intentionally bad. I mean, sometimes we make mistakes and bad judgments and kind of back the wrong regimes and things, but by and large what America does is really good.

America simply prefers to deal with dictators.

I don't care if he's got two horns and a tail. As long as he's anti communist, we can use him.

[Describing Russia:] ... the most realistic regime in the world—no ideals.

The two dictator states [Italy and Germany] are creating a third ; and by recognizing General Franco’s government, they have committed themselves irretrievably to making a success of his venture, thus limiting niceties as to means.

Spineless politics do not change the mind of a tyrant.

… diplomatic relations are merely practical conveniences and not measures of moral judgment.

There is a widespread view among the liberal intelligentsia to the effect that Henry Kissinger, U.S. National Security Advisor from 1969 to 1975 and Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977, was a bad man. That may even be an understatement. In this fashionable consensus, he is not just a bad man: he is a war criminal.

There is just a small difference between the United States and Russia - Russia does not teach the whole world democracy.

Imagine if the United States, in its war against Hitler, had said to Stalin: we don't want your support until you make your country democratic.

The predominant yardstick of your government is not human rights but national interests.

American presidents always avoid shaking hands with brutal dictators, except when it's advantageous to do so.

Actually, today I had to defend the Bush Administration in France again. They refuse to accept, because of their political ideology, that he has actually done more than any American President for Africa. But it's empirically so.

No nation has friends only interests.

My greatest regret at the passing of America-hating strongman Hugo Chavez is that he didn't live long enough to party with Dennis Rodman.

You know, Arabs are critical of United States foreign policy, but they also associate the U.S. with democratic principles and opportunity.

Obama is cutting back on the idea that we're going to have Jeffersonian democracy in Pakistan or anywhere else.

I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.

You either deny terrorists any acceptance in the international life, or you make your double standard policy work the way it has been working - 'I don't like that guy in this country, so we will be calling him a dictator and topple him. This guy in another country also dictatorial, but he's our dictator.'

Close alliances with despots are never safe for free states.