Michael Scheuer Quotes - Page 3

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• So what we have is an American foreign policy that is inextricably linked to domestic matters. It is very dangerous for a politician who desires nothing more than to stay in office to address the mindset that any change in policy is appeasement. And Americans will accept that for a certain amount of time.

  Michael Scheuer

  Office, Desire, Addresses

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I know these days it sounds a little odd, but American governments are very fearful of European reaction. They were afraid we would be considered gunslingers.

  Michael Scheuer

  Government, Sound, Would Be

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• You cannot possibly expect even the most illiterate person on Earth to believe that you really want a democracy in Iraq while you are paying Mubarak $3 billion a year to pretend he doesn't hate Israel. And you're providing the military and diplomatic umbrella that protects the fascist government, if you will, of the al Sauds.

  Michael Scheuer

  Hate, Military, Believe

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• We're being attacked, Britain is being attacked, our allies are being attacked because we've installed and backed and implemented a set of policies in the Middle East for the last years or more.

  Michael Scheuer

  Years, Allies, Middle East

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• The Western world doesn't really give enough credit to the importance in history of the Soviet invasion and the subsequent war in Afghanistan. For us it was a sideshow of the Cold War. For the Islamic world it was an unprovoked infidel invasion of a Muslim country not unlike Iraq.

  Michael Scheuer

  Country, War, Islamic

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• We've gone thorough religious wars and civil wars. America has gone through slavery, we've all gone through two world wars, segregation. Ultimately it's been a bloody, trying, wasteful, but eventually positive struggle.

  Michael Scheuer

  Religious, War, Struggle

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I also think that there is a huge failure in the American education system to educate Americans about where we, our system, our government, came from. And to some extent this failure is shared in places like Britain and Canada and Australia.

  Michael Scheuer

  Thinking, Government, Australia

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Islam is a civilization that is fractured linguistically, ethnically, sectarian-wise, as ours is. What bin Laden has done, though, is to identify a number of issues that are tangible and visceral for Muslims. His indictment list of Western support for Arab tyranny, our ability to keep oil prices too low - at least until recently - our occupation of the Arabian Peninsula.

  Michael Scheuer

  Wise, Civilization, Oil

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• One of the reasons they didn't go to Bosnia, bin Laden has explained extensively, was because they couldn't establish a base anywhere. Not in Catholic Croatia. Not in Orthodox Serbia. So they sent some trainers and a lot of money.

  Michael Scheuer

  Catholic, Bosnia, Croatia

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I think what history will show is that one of the most tragic results of the war in Iraq will be that although Sharon, the Likudites, the Neoconservatives in our country, President Bush and the Democratic party thought the war in Iraq and destroying Saddam would benefit Israeli security, we're seeing absolutely that the war in Iraq has probably put Israeli security in a more tenuous condition than it's been in since the founding of the Israeli state.

  Michael Scheuer

  Country, War, Party

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I don't know what our capabilities are. If I were there, I think it would be nutty to do that. The only country on Earth more containable than Iran is Iraq. And we've certainly made a mistake there. We could have continued Saddam.

  Michael Scheuer

  Country, Mistake, Thinking

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• We now have some years of very reliable polling by Western firms in the Islamic world, in multiple Islamic countries. And invariably, the question that asks, "Do you view U.S. foreign policy as an attack on Islam and Muslims?" is maxed out. Whether it's Jordan or Indonesia or Egypt, you get 80,85 percent of people saying "Yes."

  Michael Scheuer

  Country, Islamic, Egypt

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Every mujahadeen who comes in from outside the country finds an environment where Arabic is spoken. So in that sense, it's a tremendous come-on for the young in Islam. But I think much more important is, it just validates so much of what the Muslim world is predisposed to believe.

  Michael Scheuer

  Country, Believe, Thinking

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• The whole importance of Iraq is that we have now created two things. One, Iraq is in the Arab heartland in terms of an attraction for people who want to fight the Americans and their allies. It's far greater than anything Afghanistan was aftertheSoviets invaded. It's easy to get to, there's no trouble with languages.

  Michael Scheuer

  Fighting, Two, Iraq

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Any strong Muslim regime that threatens Israel, and we did. He said the Americans only want oil, and, of course, Iraq has the second-largest reserves. And he said that we will always replace God's law with manmade law. And finally that we intended to occupy and destroy Islamic sanctities. And I suspect that in our government, very few people knew that Iraq was the second-holiest place in Islam, after the Arabian Peninsula.

  Michael Scheuer

  Strong, Islamic, Government

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• And we're being attacked because of what we do, not because of who we are. And by refusing to talk about that, I'm afraid the American people, at least, don't have a good idea of just how dangerous the threat is that we face.

  Michael Scheuer

  Ideas, People, Who We Are

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• They [politicians] have defined the war simply in terms of the detonation of explosives. When you look at the broader picture, America is mired in two wars that we're losing at the moment. We have a political environment that is as poisonous as anything I've seen, at least since the end of Vietnam.

  Michael Scheuer

  War, Two, America

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• The second touchstone for America I think unquestionably was pushing to conclusion the program we had with the Russians to control the Soviet nuclear arsenal. I tend to think that more than anything else, that will come back to haunt us.

  Michael Scheuer

  Thinking, America, Nuclear

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• The FBI continues to be a broken, anachronistic organization, but state and local law enforcement officials are much more attuned to the kind of threat we're facing. I think that's very hopeful, but it's a long-term process.

  Michael Scheuer

  Thinking, Law, Organization

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• If the Americans attack Iran for the first time in 1,400 years, we may unite Sunnis and Shias against us. So I guess there is room for accomplishment everywhere.

  Michael Scheuer

  Iran, Years, Accomplishment

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• It is clear to me that the racism was on the other foot, that really, society in Europe was much more racist - vis-à-vis Arabs at least and black Africans - than American society.

  Michael Scheuer

  Europe, Feet, Racism

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• I think one of the most destructive things in terms of American security has been for all of our leaders, without exception in both parties, to identify Osama bin Laden as a gangster or as a madman, as an apocalyptic character who's out to destroy our civilization.

  Michael Scheuer

  Party, Character, Thinking

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• There is a direct correlation between what al Qaeda says and what it does. And the one thing that has been the gold standard of correlation has been bin Laden's 1995 - or was it 1996? - pledge that every attack is going to be more powerful than the last. If you go back to the first attack in Yemen in 1992 and chart it out, every attack has been more powerful, more destructive than the last one.

  Michael Scheuer

  Powerful, Gold, Doe

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Well, the next attack in the United States will be larger than 9/11. And there's no doubt that if they have a weapon of mass destruction, they'll use it.

  Michael Scheuer

  Mass Destruction, Doubt, United States

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Although my own view is that bin Laden does not want to stage an attack that looks like 9/11 in Europe simply because he does not want to be the agent of Trans-Atlantic reconciliation. I think they will continue to do attacks like Madrid, the British attack, the subway systems, because those attacks have proven that the European response so far has been to blame the domestic government, not to side with the Americans.

  Michael Scheuer

  Thinking, Government, Views

  Source: www.pbs.org

  4 Copy quote

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