Bill Kristol Quotes

Look at the results of regime change in Iraq. You can't possibly claim that it was successful.

The regime of Bashar al-Assad will inevitably go down. And its collapse will be loud not only in Syria but across the Arab world.

No terror state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

And the problem is, I can apologise for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can't, sincerely at least, apologise for removing Saddam.

I worry a little bit about - quote - "regime change." We haven't had a great deal of success with that in years. That's just really difficult.

We've gotten rid of (Saddam Hussein), and I suppose that's a good thing.

[Invading Iraq] will unite the entire Arab world against the West.

Many of the fights that are going on are not ones that the United States has either started or have a role in. The Shia-- Sunni split, the dictatorships that have suppressed people's aspirations, the increasing globalization without any real safety valve for people to have a better life. We saw that in Egypt. We saw a dictator overthrown, we saw Muslim Brotherhood president installed and then we saw him ousted and the army back.

I think those who have wanted regime [of Bashar Assad] change have made a mistake.

Move over to Egypt. Once again, the [Barack] Obama administration, encouraged by Republicans, toppled [Hosni] Mubarak who had been a reliable ally of the United States, of Israel, and in its place, [Mohamed] Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood came in, a terrorist organization.

Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.

The danger of leaving overwhelming wealth and power in the grasp of a small minority is a lesson that leaders such as ousted Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak have learned a little too late, as the demonstrations across the Arab world indicate.

By ending the Hussein regime, the United States has taken away yet another incubator of terrorism.

Political systems in the Middle East are totally dysfunctional and we are going to have to open them up.

Coups usually follow national humiliation.

The fall of Arab autocrats creates more risks than opportunities for the United States. As Arab political horizons expand, the space for America to pursue its interest may well contract.

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

The need to remove Col. Qaddafi should be self-evident.

I thought the best way to topple Assad was not through airstrikes, but through equipping the moderate rebel elements.

It is hard to know exactly when the Arab Spring, a phrase used to describe the beginning of the Arab peoples' demand for democracy and human-rights reform, started.

We got rid of Muammar Gaddafi. I never thought I would be able to write these words.

I think when the military ousts a sitting president, even if the sitting president is deeply unpopular, that's the definition of a coup.

When we toppled [Muammar] Gadhafi in Libya, I think that was a mistake. I think ISIS grew stronger, we had a failed state, and we were more at risk.

So they caught Gadhafi in a storm sewer and shot him. Or as they call it in the Middle East, an orderly transfer of power.

Assad is a bad guy, but you may very well end up with worse than Assad.