Jonathan Powell Quotes
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You should never appease terrorists. The mistake made by critics of the 'talking to your enemy' approach is to equate talking with appeasing.
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A peace agreement isn't like a fairy story. You don't live happily ever after.
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You can't negotiate in public. People won't make concessions in public. They will do that in private. Like sausage making, you have to do it behind closed doors.
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Maybe strong leaders are not quite as alluring as we think, and we should celebrate the fact that our leaders are just like us. Just because one candidate can't remember his whole speech and the other likes to put his feet up on the job doesn't mean they can't govern.
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Politicians do not enter into wars lightly. It is usually the military themselves who are keener to become involved.
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Every time we meet a new terrorist group, we argue they are utterly different and we can learn nothing from the last time. Of course they are different, but some lessons on how we deal with them seem to apply in all cases. s
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Terrorism seems to be the ugly twin of democracy. We need to learn to live with it because we are vulnerable to it.
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If you are going to make peace, you can't just meet nice people.