Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same.
Condoleezza RiceRead
This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government, and get away with it. Things have changed.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the changed geopolitical landscape and the diminishing tolerance for aggressive actions by powerful nations.
In this quote, Condoleezza Rice emphasizes that the international response to acts of aggression, such as Russia's actions in Czechoslovakia in 1968, has evolved over time. She suggests that current geopolitical realities do not allow for such unchecked invasions and that the world is now more vigilant and interconnected, making it difficult for any nation to act without facing consequences.
In practice
In a discussion about current global politics, one could quote this to illustrate the importance of historical context.
Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same.
I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation's chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough.
What the United States has done is to be open to people who are fleeing tyranny, who are fleeing danger, but we have done it in a very careful way that has worked for us.
For the United States, supporting international development is more than just an expression of our compassion. It is a vital investment in the free, prosperous, and peaceful international order that fundamentally serves our national interest.
Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter.
Does anybody think these people were just sitting around drinking tea?
Politics is not predictions and politics is not observations. Politics is what we do. Politics is what we do, politics is what we create, by what we work for, by what we hope for and what we dare to imagine.
The potential for the abuse of power through digital networks - upon which we the people now depend for nearly everything, including our politics - is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the Internet age.
The key to U.N. reform is giving Americans a clearer picture of what the U.N. is and what it isn't, what it can be and what it can't be.
There's never going to be a united Ireland, you know.
Political discourse has become so rotten that it's no longer possible to tell the stench of one presidential candidate from the stink of another.
Would they not fear that citizens not less tenacious than conscious of their rights would flock from the remotest extremes of their respective states to the places of election, to overthrow their tyrants, and to substitute men who would be disposed to avenge the violated majesty of the people?
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