Robert Kagan Quotes
When you have a hammer, all problems start to look like nails.
But nations without great military power face the opposite danger: When you don't have a hammer, you don't want anything to look like nails.
Kagan, Robert. Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order. Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, p. 12.
Greek invaders were marching on Istanbul
During the presidential debates George W. Bush stated that he would be very hesitant to use the military for nation building around the world. Less than a year later, the Bush administration, faced with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, launched a massive attack on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. After fighting and winning the war, the military soon realized that they would in fact be involved in nation building. However, with the assistance of the United Nations much of the humanitarian burden was lifted from the U.S. military.
3 years later he led America on a huge invasion and nation building project in Iraq. It turned out that had he listened to his own advice and not flip-flopped, the huge cost of the Iraq War might have been avoided.
At that time there were extensive meetings and discussions for the creation of what was to be the United Nations. The negative view of the United Nations or other international security organization is now and always has been held by a vocal minority in the United States.
Robert Kagan is an American neoconservative scholar and critic of U.S. foreign policy and a leading advocate of liberal interventionism.
