Ronald Reagan Quotes

The military destabilised my government on politically motivated charges.

I shall rejoice on the day that you come here with troops... This land has grave need for your presence. There are a thousand abuses and political factions; but the moment you arrive all will disappear. Now they are sending a commission to you to propose a crown. Receive it as the infamous proposition deserves; and try, without resorting to the methods of Europe, to bring an end to this miserable existence at the hands of factions.

If Saddam were to be replaced tomorrow he would probably be replaced with someone who's just as bad or worse than he is.

Few revolutions succeed, and when they do, you often discover they did not gain what you hoped for, and you condemn yourself to perpetual fear, as the parties you defeated may always regain power and work for your ruin.

The Egyptian military plays positive and negative roles in Egypt, but the most significant single thing it did under Mubarak was to guarantee an Islamist victory once he left the scene.

In two years, there were 22 military coups d'etat, essentially in Africa and the third world. The coup d'etat of Algiers, in 1965, is what opened the path.

It was not in our interest to enter Iraq in the first place.

From their point of view, I had gone too far. I had to disappear. That is to say, if the Algerian army had not overthrown me, others would have done so.

As an autocrat becomes older, the struggle for influence intensifies, which in turn makes the sovereign even more dangerous.

Feelings of marginalization and cries of separation are symptomatic of countries where rulers find power sweet and intoxicating, where power is coveted, and when acquired, painstakingly guarded.

The trouble with military rule is that every colonel or general is soon full of ambition. The navy takes over today and the army tomorrow.

The main reason the Americans have come to Iraq is to put down the Shiite people—to prevent us from setting up a Shiite religious government.

The rule of several bad men does not last long, and easily decays to the rule of a single tyrant.

Coups usually follow national humiliation.

I have no doubt that our military would decisively defeat Iraq’s forces and remove Saddam. But like the proverbial dog chasing the car down the road, we must consider what we would do after we caught it. I am especially worried about the extreme difficulty of occupying Iraq with its history of autocratic rule, its balkanized ethnic tensions, and its isolated economic system. Our regime might be rejected by the Iraqi people, leading to civil unrest and even anarchy.

It is overly optimistic to think that we can take a country that has emerged from under a totalitarian regime with its institutions of civil society and create a beacon of democracy within five years. If we try to transform Iraq into a democracy, we will need more and more troops over time because we will have to quell nationalistic revolts.

The U.S. military will be stepping into a morass. Iraq presents as unpromising a breeding ground for democracy as any in the world. It has never really known democracy or even legitimate, centralized rule for any great duration.

The Shah is a nut!

The speed with which armies collapse, bureaucracies abdicate, and social structures dissolve once the autocrat is removed frequently surprises American Policy makers.

An emperor will be born near Italy who will do his country much harm … He will rise from a soldier to the throne.

Revolutions of state, many times, make way for new institutions and forms; and often determine in either setting up some tyranny at home, or bringing in some conquest from abroad.

We are launched on a course from which there is no turning back: The overthrow of the Diem government.

Nobody liked Diem. But how to get rid of him and get somebody who would continue the war, not split the country in two, and therefore not only lose the war but the country—that was the problem.

The most blood-boltered coup may result merely in a substitution of interchangeable military cliques.

We have been under military rule since 1952, when a group of army officers overthrew Egypt's monarchy and ended Britain's occupation of the country. But that only replaced an external occupation with an internal one, in which favored sons of the armed forces replaced their uniforms with suits, a move meant to create a semblance of civilian rule.