Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski tells Newmax.TV that the United States needs to “stop sort of waving the sword and making threats, unless we are prepared to deliver.”
“It will become our war again. So let’s stop sort of waving the sword and making these threats unless we’re prepared to deliver,” Brzezinski told Newsmax in an exclusive interview. “I don’t approve of the notion that we should be announcing who should step down from the position of a head of a state unless we are seriously prepared to remove that person.
“But if we are not, if we are being prudent and careful, then let’s also be careful with how we talk,” said Brzezinski, whose latest book is
Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power.
The United Nations was scheduled to vote Wednesday on a new resolution calling for the end of the 17-month civil war in Syria. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called on Syrian President President Bashar al-Assad to resign. He has refused to step down and has vowed to respond to threats against him with an “iron hand.”
“I’m not so sure that blowing up Syria in the middle of a volatile Middle East – tensions with Iran, uncertainties in Iraq, the residual resentment between the Israelis and the Palestinians – whether it’s a good idea to be rushing in with another conflict,” Brzezinski said. “Unfortunately, that means that we can’t resolve the problem that quickly. I think it will take time.”
Perhaps what might work in Syria are “so-to-speak free elections” that “permit people from the Assad regime to compete in the elections,” he said.
“Otherwise, we are not really asking for free elections. We are asking for elections that ratify one spectrum of what is obviously a very divided society.”
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