Peter Beinart Quotes

We must retool our nation to prepare for the challenge we already face to maintain our position in the global economy. And this much is certain: America will not have national security without economic security.

The realities of the modern global economy require government to play a substantial role in ensuring the national and economic security of the people.

Economic security is a very important part of foreign policy.

The big priorities will focus on the security and economic side because they really go hand in hand.

Without economic security, we cannot have national security.

Our prosperity provides a foundation for our power. It pays for our military. It underwrites our diplomacy.

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

Poland not only has a capable military but also is strong economically and does not need money being raised for it.

Clearly, we need a strong economy to build a strong military.

A strong American economy is essential to the well-being and security of our friends and allies.

Now this brings me to my main topic - our military strength - more specifically, how to stay strong against threat from outside, without undermining the economic health that supports our security.

There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States.

I think, to a certain extent the economy and these decisions I made to protect the country matter a lot.

Extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere.

I'd actually love to think that I could trust Kerry on national security. But the only way I could do that, at this point, would be via self-delusion.

Well, he keeps saying that, and as defense secretary, of course he has to think of a lot of potential enemies. I do not think it's a wise course to articulate this or to base our policy on it. And I do not see under modern circumstances what we would be fighting about.

I think a draft produces a better Army than the one we would have with all volunteers, because I think you get average Americans if you have a draft. And if it's an all-volunteer Army, you get people who join up because of some problem in their own lives. They don't have anything else to do, they don't have a job, or they can't find what they want to do, so they join the Army. And it doesn't produce the best Army.

Israel has legitimate concerns about its security relative to Iran. I mean, you have a large country with a significant military that has proclaimed that Israel shouldn't exist, that has denied the Holocaust, that has financed Hezbollah, and as a consequence, there are missiles that are pointed towards Tel Aviv. There are very good reasons why Israelis are nervous about Iran's position in the world generally.

The great thing is, Internet allows you to create your own job, not just look for jobs other people are going to give you. And that, combined with the American spirit, I think, is going to help us come out of the recession faster than other countries. And I think it's going to help Africa come out of, you know, a century of slump.

Our strength and our security depends obviously on having a strong military, having a strong economy, and also on our ability to have willing allies and nations join us in common global efforts, the principal one today being terrorism.

I think it's hypocritical to complain about the rise of China. For 50 years, we were telling everybody in the world that the big threat was Communism, so now the countries that were Communists are now rampant capitalists - and they're doing very well, in some ways much better than the UK. Well, we asked for it. We told them that's what you have to do, and they're doing it, buying up your biggest hotels in New York. You have to laugh.

I think we're being laughed at all over the world. I think that if you look at our military, we can't beat ISIS, General George Patton, General Douglas MacArthur are spinning in their grave. We can't beat ISIS, okay? I think that our veterans are not taken care of, they're treated worse than illegal immigrants, by the way.

As a human being with notoriety and a big mouth, I've felt most threatened during the first Bush Administration. Whenever there's a Bush in the White House, many people die, and the rest of us are threatened. I just didn't think it would happen quite so quickly. The so-called USA Patriot Act, and the announcement of trying people in military tribunals if Bush or Rumsfeld's or Ashcroft's people think they somehow qualify as terrorists, basically, this is McCarthyism run amok.

Turkey's relationship with the West is a love-hate one. There are people in Turkey who want to open to the outside world and others who are frightened of the outside world. They don't feel secure; they think that foreigners are trying to harm or even destroy Turkey. But that's not true of the majority of Turks, who want to exercise their skills in a global market.

Aside from an intervention, which I don't think is on anybody's mind, Iraq is going to have defend for itself.