Chuck Hagel quotes:

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  • The United Nations has a critical role to play in promoting stability, security, democracy, human rights, and economic development. The UN is as relevant today as at any time in its history, but it needs reform.

  • Well, Mr Obama inherited probably the biggest inventory of problems, certainly foreign policy problems, than any American president ever has. I think the entire inventory of problems that he inherited is probably as big overall as any president, certainly since Franklin Roosevelt and maybe, in some cases, worse.

  • Foreign policy is all about a universe of bad decisions, imperfect decisions; every situation is different. The dynamics, the atmospherics, the people, the pressures, the geopolitical realities shift.

  • 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.

  • Alliances and international organizations should be understood as opportunities for leadership and a means to expand our influence, not as constraints on our power.

  • Our alliances should be understood as a means to expand our influence, not as a constraint on our power. The expansion of democracy and freedom in the world should be a shared interest and value with all nations.

  • We live in a world where there are dangerous people, there are bad people.

  • Peace comes through dealing with people. Peace doesn't come at the end of a bayonet or the end of a gun.

  • You can't just drop the 82nd Airborne into Baghdad and it will all be over.

  • The recent wave of Taliban attacks has made clear that the international community must not waiver in its support for a stable, secure and prosperous Afghanistan.

  • Our foreign policy needs to support our energy, economic, defense and domestic policies. It all falls within the arch of national interest. There will be windows of opportunity, but they will open and close quickly.

  • When I came to the Senate in 1997, the world was being redefined by forces no single country controlled or understood. The implosion of the Soviet Union and a historic diffusion of economic and geopolitical power created new influences and established new global power centers - and new threats.

  • If America is to succeed in responding to these 21st Century challenges, our political system cannot continue to bog down in the mire of partisan gamesmanship.

  • The Israeli people must be free to live in peace and security.

  • Nations, great nations have limitations. All nations have limitations. Even great powers have limitations.

  • I have said many times that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism.

  • Engagement is not appeasement. Engagement is not surrender.

  • Well, let's go back to the original intent of Social Security. It is an insurance contract.

  • No border that touches Israel is always secure.

  • I have never believed you go to war in Iraq, you go to war in Afghanistan, and believe that you can deal with those battlefields, those countries, in microcosms, or narrow channels.

  • And this - this board was - was impanelled in 1951. And it's gone through ups and downs in how the secretaries have used it. But I have put a premium on that advisory board.

  • I would not trade America's position in the world - our ledger, our debts and assets - for any country in the world. There isn't a country in the world even close to America.

  • I am fully supportive of 'open service' and committed to LGBT military families.

  • When you're dealing in situations that are uncontrollable and combustible, you try to stabilize the situation as quickly as you can and then work toward and work out toward democratic reform.

  • It is easy to get into war, not so easy to get out.

  • History has shown that a country most effectively speaks with one voice. When nationally elected officials work together, build consensus, and provide leadership, the American people will follow.

  • (The) chain of command has failed over the years, obviously, for a lot of reasons.

  • Politics or ideology must not get in the way of sound planning.

  • I'm not saying my idea is the one and only idea. We should have other ideas, but the president has not laid down a specific plan as to how he's going to get us to solvency. I do that.

  • My overall worldview has never changed: that America has and must maintain the strongest military in the world, that we must lead the international community to confront threats and challenges together, and that we must use all tools of American power to protect our citizens and our interests."

  • There are always consequences to actions that you take. There are consequences to inaction. And thinking through, asking the questions, "Well, then what happens? What comes next?" is critically important.

  • I took an oath of office to the Constitution, I didn't take an oath of office to my party or my president.

  • We must prepare for everything.

  • I have said many times that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism,

  • Palestinians caged up like animals.

  • Institutions are imperfect. Governments surely are. People are.

  • My overall worldview has never changed: that America has and must maintain the strongest military in the world, that we must lead the international community to confront threats and challenges together, and that we must use all tools of American power to protect our citizens and our interests.

  • There has to be a reason and objective (to air strikes). What does it do to move the effort down the road for a political conversation?

  • This current government in Iraq has never fulfilled the commitments it made to form a unity government with the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shia. We have worked hard with them within the confines of our ability to do that but we can't dictate to them.

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

  • We can't ... take that piece of reality in this business and set that aside and say, well, that doesn't count. And the Republicans on my side understand that the majority is in fact up for grabs next year. So there's not a decision made up here that doesn't have that factor coursing through that current.

  • Desperate men do desperate things when you take hope away. And that's where the Palestinians are today.

  • I believe, and always have, that America must engage - not retreat - in the world.

  • The twenty first century will require a re-affirmation and re-definition of our alliances and international organisations.

  • In a general way, if one cannot attribute to the Jew the whole responsibility of the situation, economic, political, and social, by which Algeria is being strangled, it is no exaggeration to recognize him as morally guilty, for the great part of his rìle here, still more than elsewhere, has consisted in corrupting, degrading, and disintegrating.

  • If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes. This is a tough business.

  • Deserves some consideration, and I think that should have been done right from the beginning.

  • I don't think it's a matter of going back and having a review of our process. Our process is about as thorough as there can be. Is it imperfect? Yes. Is there risk? Yes, but we start with the fact that we have an American that's being held hostage and that American's life is in danger and that's where we start. And then we proceed from there.

  • Iraq was a war of choice, like Vietnam.

  • Things aren't getting better; they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality. It's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq.

  • And I want every one of you, every one of us, 100 senators to look in that camera, and you tell your people back home what you think. Don't hide anymore; none of us. That is the essence of our responsibility. And if we're not willing to do it, we're not worthy to be seated right here. We fail our country. If we don't debate this, if we don't debate this, we are not worthy of our country. We fail our country.

  • The Bush administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and elsewhere, and should not be demonized or condemned for disagreeing with them. Suggesting that to challenge and criticize policy is undermining and hurting our troops is not democratic, nor what this country has stood for over 200 years.

  • Bogging down large armies in historically complex, dangerous areas ends in disaster.

  • I'm a supporter of Israel, always have been.

  • Imposing democracy through force is a roll of the dice.

  • No one individual vote, no one individual quote or no one individual statement defines me, my beliefs, or my record.

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