redman Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 Stolen from another forum: During an address to the World Economic Forum, Secretary of State Colin Powell was asked a somewhat long and involved question by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, which ended with the following interrogative: "And would you not agree, as a very significant political figure in the United States, Colin, that America, at the present time, is in danger of relying too much upon the hard power and not enough upon building the trust from which the soft values, which of course all of our family life that actually at the bottom, when the bottom line is reached, is what makes human life valuable?" Secretary Powell delivered a lengthy response to the former Archbishop's question: "The United States believes strongly in what you call soft power, the value of democracy, the value of the free economic system, the value of making sure that each citizen is free and free to pursue their own God-given ambitions and to use the talents that they were given by God. And that is what we say to the rest of the world. That is why we participated in establishing a community of democracy within the Western Hemisphere. It's why we participate in all of these great international organizations. There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power -- and here I think you're referring to military power -- then sometimes you are faced with situations that you can't deal with. I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan. So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world. " (Applause.) "We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works. " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckydevil Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 that was great. Powell is truly a great American Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luca Brasi Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 That was a truly fantastic response. He really is a great leader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 Powell is, in my opinion, the most skilled and articulate public speaker since Churchill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratoman Posted March 26, 2003 Share Posted March 26, 2003 GRRRREAT!!!!! :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 Few people can hold a candle to Powell on the world political stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJWatson3 Posted March 27, 2003 Share Posted March 27, 2003 It's a damn shame that he didn't run for office. That was articulate and intelligent. Something I would want to hear come out of a President's mouth, not being read off a tele-prompter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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