Words matter. These are the best Chuck Hagel Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Alliances and international organizations should be understood as opportunities for leadership and a means to expand our influence, not as constraints on our power.
The United States can’t impose democracies. We can’t impose our will. The Russians found that out in Afghanistan.
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.
Engagement is not appeasement. Engagement is not surrender.
Imposing democracy through force is a roll of the dice.
Well, no American wants to in any way hurt our capabilities to national defense, but that doesn’t mean an unlimited amount of money, and a blank check for anything they want at any time, for any purpose. Not at all.
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.
Well, let’s go back to the original intent of Social Security. It is an insurance contract.
We live in a world where there are dangerous people, there are bad people.
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.
No border that touches Israel is always secure.
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.
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.
The Israeli people must be free to live in peace and security.
I am fully supportive of ‘open service’ and committed to LGBT military families.
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.
Bogging down large armies in historically complex, dangerous areas ends in disaster.
It is easy to get into war, not so easy to get out.
No one individual vote, no one individual quote or no one individual statement defines me, my beliefs, or my record.
Institutions are imperfect. Governments surely are. People are.
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.
