Hugo Chavez Quotes

We're not going to spread democracy at the business end of a M16 held by a 23 year old Marine.

Preemption, democracy promoting and nation building have all been sullied by association by association with the War in Iraq.

But, if you believe we should go around the world overturning regimes to make little United States, I don't agree with that, because I don't think we're capable of doing that.

It's not the job of the U.S. military to do nation-building or produce democratic utopias.

Political preemption in the form of democracy promotion will be as important as the capacity for military preemption.

Throughout history states have also used force to reform, restructure, or rebuild the domestic institutions of other countries

I never subscribed to what you might call the neo-Conservative position that somehow, at the barrel of a gun, overnight, liberty and democracy could be conjured up.

Imposing democracy through force is a roll of the dice.

The international community unfortunately did take sides in Libya, and we would never allow the Security Council to authorise anything similar to what happened in Libya.

We remain in Iraq because we know that sometimes liberty needs some nursing before it can grow on its own.

In time it will become clear to everyone that support for the policies of pre-emptive war and interventionist nation-building will have much greater significance than the removal of Saddam Hussein itself.

The free world led by the U.S. fought almost all regimes that trampled on human rights.

And in Iraq we tried to implement the same policy that was so successful in Saudi Arabia, but Saddam Hussein didn't buy. When the economic hit men fail in this scenario, the next step is what we call the jackals.

Anybody who believes that we can democratize Iran, Iraq and Syria by military force is living in a fantasy world.

I don't think it's the job of the United States to build democracies from whole cloth. That's Wilsonianism to me of the most crazy kind.

The United States must learn to rebuild states after overturning their regimes.

Our country is being bled daily in an effort to create a democracy in a place where it never existed.

The concepts of "democracy promotion" and "transformational diplomacy" pursued by the George W. Bush Administration conditioned interstate relations on altering any system of government that did not match Washington's understanding of democracy.

Look at the results of regime change in Iraq. You can't possibly claim that it was successful.

Let's be clear: Neither Secretary Powell or I opposed the notion of removing Saddam Hussein by force, but we wanted to avoid the war if we could. But if we couldn't, the notion of removing Saddam Hussein from the scene seemed eminently sensible, given that you had, what, 16 or so U.N. Security Council resolutions basically saying the same thing.

The United States can't impose democracies. We can't impose our will. The Russians found that out in Afghanistan.

The United States armed forces and coalition troops deserve recognition and support for their work to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and ensure the safety and security of the American people, civilians abroad, and the people of Iraq.

If there is no direct threat why are we invading?

Iraq is part of a legitimate American effort not to have democracy everywhere but to have democracy somewhere.

I used to wish there was a useful term for those of us who thought American power should be used to remove psychopathic dictators.