American - Public | November 14, 1977 -
Our basic assessment was that if America keeps going down these rabbit holes in the Middle East, we're just going to put ourselves out of business as the world leader because we're just draining resources and diplomatic bandwidth, and we're not producing outcomes.
Ben Rhodes
LeaderBusinessWorldAmericaDown
In the Arab Spring, that obviously came to a head in Syria. I found myself arguing for intervention, mainly just because I wanted things to get better, and I had this germ of liberal humanitarian interventionism.
MyselfSpringBetterJust Because
The Benghazi attack was one of the more confusing, chaotic days that we had at work because you had these multiple violent protests taking place in the Middle East.
WorkYouPlaceMoreDaysMiddle
When I first went to work in the West Wing, the most daunting thing was how small this place was... You walk in: it's three floors, and there's a few offices on each floor, and that's it.
WorkWalkSmallYouPlaceThree
The fact of the matter is the West Wing never gets fully renovated because nobody wants to vacate it. And so you have basically patch-up jobs that are being done, but it's a tight and cramped environment.
EnvironmentYouNobodyDoneMatter
I was a relatively anonymous guy, and for whatever reason, I became one of the villains for the Right.
RightReasonWhateverGuyVillains
I had the Secret Service actually patrolling my block at some point. I didn't sign up for that. I went to work to write speeches for Barack Obama!
WorkServiceWriteSecretPointUp
The events of my twenties felt historic, but the people involved did not. I wanted a hero - someone who could make sense of what was happening around me and in some way redeem it.
HeroPeopleMeSomeoneWayEvents
It was wrenching to read about the brutality of Assad every morning, to see images of family homes reduced to rubble. I felt we had to do something in Syria.
FamilyMorningSeeSomethingSyria
Billions of people around the globe had come to know Barack Obama, had heard his words, had watched his speeches, and, in some unknowable but irreducible way, had come to see the world as a place that could - in some incremental way - change.
ChangeWordsPeopleWorldPlaceWay
As people who know me know, probably to a fault, I am usually not without thoughts and words.
WordsI AmPeopleMeThoughtsKnow
The only place in the world where, I think, leaders have preferred Trump are in Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia and Israel.
WorldThinkPlaceIsraelWhereOnly
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