The action we take and the decisions we make in this decade will have consequences far into this century. If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.
George W. BushRead
Are the peoples of the Middle East somehow beyond the reach of liberty? Are millions of men and women and children condemned by history or culture to live in despotism? Are they alone never to know freedom and never even to have a choice in the matter?
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the idea that people in the Middle East are destined to live without freedom.
George W. Bush's quote reflects a deep concern regarding the perception that the people of the Middle East are fated to live under oppressive regimes, stripped of their freedom and choices. It challenges the notion that cultural or historical factors can permanently deny a population the fundamental human right to liberty, invoking a sense of urgency for the global community to recognize and act against such despotism.
Themes
FreedomLibertyDespotismHuman RightsMiddle EastPolitics
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about human rights initiatives in the Middle East.
More from George W. Bush
All quotes →Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger.
George W. BushRead
Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended.
George W. BushRead
Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.
George W. BushRead
Adoption was such a positive alternative to abortion, a way to save one life and brighten two more: those of the adoptive parents.
George W. BushRead
We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions - by abandoning every value except the will to power - they follow in the path of fascism, and Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies.
George W. BushRead
Similar quotes
The U.S.'s major strength factor and weapon is its economy. If you cripple it, you cripple the military.
Chester W. NimitzRead
If they think they have issues with the president not doing enough for the poor now, wait and see what happens if the opposition takes office. Then they would really need a poverty tour.
Cornel WestRead
Concentrated power can be always wielded in the interest of the few and at the expense of the many. Government in its last analysis is this power reduced to a science. Governments never lead; they follow progress. When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then.
Lucy ParsonsRead
Long Island is shaped the way it is largely because of Robert Moses. Long Island is a perfect example of how political power shapes people's lives every day.
Robert CaroRead
The public affairs of the union are spread throughout a very extensive region, and are extremely diversified by the local affairs connected with them, and can with difficulty be learnt in any other place, than in the central councils, to which a knowledge of them will be brought by the representatives of every part of the empire. Yet some knowledge of the affairs, and even of the laws of all the states, ought to be possessed by the members from each of the states.
James MadisonRead
The people are the government, administering it by their agents; they are the government, the sovereign power.
Andrew JacksonRead