Colin Powell Quotes

American oil operations are, for all practical purposes, instruments of our foreign policy.

As we head to war with Iraq, President Bush wants to make one thing clear: This war is not about oil. It's about gasoline.

The stakes are very high for us in Haiti. We have many important interests there. Perhaps the most important to me is our interest in the promotion of democracy in this hemisphere.

We should encourage governments to be sustained by citizens' taxes - that is, democracies. Democracies will be enduring allies of America.

I am aware of the thesis that the United States has long since invested exclusively in stability and this has obviated democratic transformation in the Middle East.

There's no way in the world that the United States does not want to spread democratic ideals, but the first thing we have to do is that which is the interest of our security.

Iraq may be able to run along in a corrupt, inefficient, oriental sort of way, something better than she was under Turkish rule…. If this is the result, even though it be not a very splendid one, we shall have built better than we know.

A commitment in Iraq was inevitable. We had to establish a base at Basra, and control that port to safeguard Persian oil in case of need.

There was a time when the deal between the Saudis and us made sense: after 1945, we need oil, lots, cheap, in guaranteed amounts and at stable prices. In return, we protected them from regional and extra-regional predators - Nasser, the Soviets, etc. They became rich, we powered industry. Good deal. Problems started later: as soon as the kingdom stabilized, King Faisal conceived a great design of taking over Sunni Islam to the Wahhabi creed, and Saudi imperial goals.

The Persian Gulf region would have zero strategic importance were it not for the oil.

Doesn't it seem awfully strange that the Iraqi government we support is an ally of the Iranians who are our declared enemies? Are we not now supporting the Iranians by propping up their allies in Iraq?

China's growth and stability is a vital issue for all nations.

For the U.S., the primary interest is our continued access to Saudi Arabian oil in adequate quantities... at an acceptable political as well as economic price.

America's decline would set in motion tectonic shifts undermining the political stability of the entire Middle East.

The chief job of foreign policy today is helping to figure out the rules for the global economy and defending each nation's interests within it.

Iraq deals with the United States regardless of who is in the White House.

The U.S. cannot implement a cogent strategy on the world stage if no one is sure whether to take the President seriously.

It's all part of the same ball of wax, right? The oil companies, Israel, Halliburton.

I think it's (Israeli pressure for invading Iraq) the worst kept secret in Washington, everybody I talked to in Washington has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do; because I mentioned the Neo-Conservatives who describe themselves as Neo-Conservatives, I was called, Anti-Semitic.

We need to see the connection between global warring and global warming, and it's oil. Sustainability is the path to peace.

We are thus in the position of having to borrow from Europe to defend Europe, of having to borrow from China and Japan to defend Chinese and Japanese access to Gulf oil, and of having to borrow from Arab emirs, sultans and monarchs to make Iraq safe for democracy. We borrow from the nations we defend so that we may continue to defend them. To question this is an unpardonable heresy called 'isolationism.'

We are helping the people that [George W.]Bush says are evil. Teheran couldn't be happier about the high oil prices resulting from the Iraq war.

The Iraq War is largely about oil.

If America leads a blessed life, then why did God put all of our oil under people who hate us?

Military activities (are) not a role for the United States. There needs to be a number of steps that Maliki and his government must take to demonstrate that he is committed to an inclusive Iraq, something he has not done up to date.