Throwing a "crappy little country" against a wall
"every now and again the United States has to pick up a crappy little country and throw it against a wall just to prove we are serious."
ADDENDUM:
I have received several emails questioning the validity of the" crappy little country" quotation. The link (shown above) discusses this controversy.
The original source for the quotation appears to be this article by Jonah Goldberg. Subsequently, a revised article in 2003 by William O. Beeman indicated that that the quotation was not genuine. In 2004, however, Simon Mars states that Ledeen admitted to him that he said it but also stated that his words needed to be put in context. I have written to Professor Beeman to find out why he made the original revision in 2003...despite Mars' statement that Ledeen later admitted that the quotation was accurate.