P. J. O'Rourke Quotes
Whatever it is that the government does, sensible Americans would prefer that the government does it to somebody else. This is the idea behind foreign policy.
O'Rourke, P. J. Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government. Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991, p. 209.
Chamberlain’s policy was to appease Hitler and Germany to avoid war. Although he did not see Czechoslavkia as a critical British national interest and claimed he had secured peace {585941} , the reality was that he gave Germany room to start its aggression which would engulf all of Europe and much of the world. The British became the only bulwark against Hitler until the Russians stopped the Germans and America entered the war.
Many Americans were total isolationists at this time. This statement was viewed with alarm by many Republicans and some Democrats.
The Congressman was being critical of the George W. Bush Administration and their tendency to decide which leaders and countries were legitimate and moral and which were not, and then invading the “bad” and executing the leaders as with Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
The plan was to have an American agent with a few marines make an alliance with a rival to the throne of Algiers and depose the existing ruler with American “special forces”.
Clinton’s only political experience prior to his run for the Presidency was as a very successful Governor of Arkansas. Foreign policy was his weak suit.
Patrick Jake O'Rourke is an American political satirist and journalist. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on National Public Radio's game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Since 2011, he has been a columnist at The Daily Beast.
