Lee Hsien Loong Quotes

Foreign policy will require a strategic agility that, whenever possible, gets ahead of problems, strengthens U.S. security and alliances, and promotes American interests and credibility.

We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America's friends from her enemies, and recognizes the true threats that we face.

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.

No one can think intelligently on the many complicated problems of American foreign policy unless he decides first what he considers the real purpose and object of that policy…. Fundamentally, I believe the ultimate purpose of our foreign policy must be to protect the liberty of the people of the United States.

I would never seek foreign conflicts just to distract attention from domestic difficulties; that would be frivolous.

When it comes to foreign policy, the American people will ultimately reward not the party with the most ambitious vision but the party with the most sober and realistic one.

Senator Clinton is very knowledgeable about national security and is probably going to be strong on defense. I have no doubts whatsoever that if she were president in January '09, she would not act irresponsibly and issue orders to conduct an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, regardless of the consequences, and squander the gains that have been made.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

I said it was my feeling that the American people would struggle for peace, and that has since been underscored by the President of these United States.

A great nation like the United States has many and varied interests, and we need both to do business with tyrants and to engage constantly in multilateral diplomacy.

I think most Americans believe that although it's better not to use military force if you can avoid it, that the world simply doesn't provide us the luxury of giving away military force as an important tool of foreign policy.

Diplomacy is not an end in itself if it does not advance U.S. interests.

Too often in Washington we tend to see foreign policy as an abstraction, with little understanding of what we are committing our country to: the complications and consequences of endeavors.

I remain committed to a balanced policy, which will protect our national interests both on our eastern border - I mean with Russia - and of course with the European Union.

We have tried to make it clear that the United States is not just an old cow that gives more milk the more it is kicked in the flanks.

The principles that should guide American foreign policy are simple: the world is safer when America leads, only strength ensures peace and freedom, and America must stand with its allies and challenge its adversaries.

Americans assume that we never go to war to sustain our wealth, because war must be understood as a moral enterprise commensurate with our being a democracy.

When the commander-in-chief sends Americans to fight and die, it should be only to protect our vital national interests, not for his own personal, political gain.

There are a lot of things that have to be considered in National. The military aspect of it is only one of them. I'm confident that President Bush will have all of those things laid out for him before he makes the decision.

A president cannot sit on his hands and be seen as passive in the face of ruthless action by a foreign dictator.

You should never take military intervention off the table. When you do so, you give an out to a rogue nation or rogue actors.

This president failed so miserably in diplomacy that we are now forced to war.

Foreign policy is about choosing from nasty options.

Power alone is respected and ... in order to gain peace, the United States has no alternative but to wield it

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right, and you turned out to be wrong.