Bret Stephens on All Topics
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“'We have been trying to negotiate [with the Iranians] for five, six years. We've tried everything. We have met every Iranian. We have tried to open every possible channel. We've had new ideas and the result is this: nothing." Thus did a senior Western diplomat recently describe to me his country's efforts to reach a negotiated settlement with Tehran over its nuclear programs.”
“Mr. Obama's real problems are of a different stripe. It's not as if he lacks for charisma. It's that he believes too much in the power of charisma itself and specifically too much in his own.”
“For actual Haitians, however, just about every conceivable aid scheme beyond immediate humanitarian relief will lead to more poverty, more corruption and less institutional capacity. It will benefit the well-connected at the expense of the truly needy, divert resources from where they are needed most, and crowd out local enterprise. And it will foster the very culture of dependence the country so desperately needs to break.”
“PowerPoint presentations will not win the war in Afghanistan.”
“One of life's paradoxes is that we are as often undone by our virtues as by our vices. And so it is with civilizations, ours not least.”
“In today's economy, the hard truth is that we can't spend, consume, manipulate and inflate our way to general prosperity”
“Forty-seven years ago, Americans woke up to the fact that a distant power could threaten us much closer to home. Perhaps it's time Camelot 2.0 take note that we are now on course for a replay.”
“Is it not obvious that the vision of apocalypse as it was revealed to Saint John of Patmos was, in fact, global warming?”
“Climate change researchers must believe in the reality of global warming just as a priest must believe in the existence of God.”
“Jimmy Carter's presidency offers a lesson in how the purest intentions can lead to the most disastrous results.”
“A site of mourning became a symbol of defiance and then a metaphor for incompetence.”
“To blame Mr. Karzai is to point the finger at the wrong culprit in the pursuit of disastrous, dishonorable defeat.”
“Pleading with Iran will get the West nowhere.”
“Part of the genius of Marxism, and a reason for its enduring appeal, is that it fed man's neurotic fear of social catastrophe while providing an avenue for moral transcendence. It's just the same with global warming.”
“Not long ago, I found myself driving behind a car with 'Free Tibet,' 'Save Darfur,' and 'Obama 08' bumper stickers. I wonder if it will ever dawn on the owner of that car that at least one of those stickers doesn't belong.”
