【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 n theme that folks bring up. apparently people haveforgotten that america, as the most powerful country on earth, still does not controleverything around the world. and so our diplomatic efforts often take time. they often will seeprogress and then a step backwards. thatamp。rsquo。s been true in the middle east. thatamp。rsquo。s been true ineurope. thatamp。rsquo。s been true in asia. thatamp。rsquo。s the nature of world affairs. itamp。rsquo。s not neat, and itamp。rsquo。s notsmooth.
　　but if you look at, for example, ukraine, we have made progress in delivering on what we saidwe would do. we canamp。rsquo。t control how mr. putin thinks. but what we can do is say to mr. putin, ifyou continue on the path of arming separatists with heavy armaments that the evidencesuggests may have resulted in 300 innocent people on a jet dying, and that violatesinternational law and undermines the integrity territorial integrity and sovereignty ofukraine, then youamp。rsquo。re going to face consequences that will hurt your country.
　　and there was a lot of skepticism about our ability to coordinate with europeans for a strongseries of sanctions. and each time we have done what we said we would do, including this week,when we put in place sanctions that have an impact on key sectors of the russian economy their energy, their defense, their financial systems.
　　it hasnamp。rsquo。t resolved the problem yet. i spoke to mr. putin this morning, and i indicated to him,just as we will do what we say we do in terms of sanctions, weamp。rsquo。ll also do what we say we do interms of wanting to resolve this issue diplomatically if he takes a different position. if herespects and honors the right of ukrainians to determine their own destiny, then itamp。rsquo。s possibleto make sure that russian interests are addressed that are legitimate, and that ukrainians areable to make their own decisions, and we can resolve this conflict and end some of thebloodshed.
　　but the point is, though, bill, that if you look at the 20th century and the early part of thiscentury, there are a lot of conflicts that america doesnamp。rsquo。t resolve. thatamp。rsquo。s always been true. thatdoesnamp。rsquo。t mean we stop trying. and itamp。rsquo。s not a measure of american influence on any given day orat any given moment that there are conflicts around the world that are difficult. the conflict innorthern ireland raged for a very, very long time until finally something broke, where theparties decided that it wasnamp。rsquo。t worth killing each other.
　　the palestinianisraeli conflict has been going on even longer than youamp。rsquo。ve been reporting. (laughter.) and i donamp。rsquo。t think at any point was there a suggestion somehow that america didnamp。rsquo。thave influence just because we werenamp。rsquo。t able to finalize an israelipalestinian peace deal.
　　you will recall that situations like kosovo and bosnia raged on for quite some time, and therewas a lot more death and bloodshed than there has been so far in the ukrainian situation beforeit ultimately did get resolved.
　　and so i recognize with so many different issues popping up around the world, sometimes itmay seem as if this is an aberration or itamp。rsquo。s unusual. but the truth of the matter is, is thatthereamp。rsquo。s a big world out there, and that as indispensable as we are to try to lead it, thereamp。rsquo。s stillgoing to be tragedies out there and there are going to be conflicts. and our job is to just makesure that we continue to project whatamp。rsquo。s right, whatamp。rsquo。s just, and that weamp。rsquo。re building coalitions oflikeminded countries and partners in order to advance not only our core security interests butalso the interests of the world as a whole.
　　q: do you think you could have done more?
　　the president: on which one?
　　q: on any of them? ukraine?
　　the president: well look, i think, bill, that the nature of being president is that youamp。rsquo。realways asking yourself what more can you do. but with respect to, letamp。rsquo。s say, the israelipalestinian issue, this administration invested an enormous amount to try to bring theparties together around a framework for peace and a twostate solution. john kerry investedan enormous amount of time. in the end, itamp。rsquo。s up to the two parties to make a decision. wecan lead them to resolve some of the technical issues and to show them a path, but theyamp。rsquo。vegot to want it.
　　with respect to ukraine, i think that we have done everything that we can to support theukrainian government and to deter russia from moving further into ukraine. but short of goingto war, there are going to be some constraints in terms of what we can do if president putin andrussia are ignoring what should be their longterm interests.
　　right now, what weamp。rsquo。ve done is impose sufficient costs on russia that, objectively speaking,they should president putin should want to resolve this diplomatically, get these sanctionslifted, get their economy growing again, and have good relations with ukraine. but sometimespeople donamp。rsquo。t always act rationally, and they donamp。rsquo。t always act based on their medium or longterm interests. that canamp。rsquo。t deter us, though. weamp。rsquo。ve just got to stay at it.
　　wendell.
　　q: mr. president, republicans point to some of your executive orders as reason, they say, thatthey canamp。rsquo。t trust you to implement legislation that they pass. even if you donamp。rsquo。t buy thatargument, do you hold yourself totally blameless in the inability it appears to reach agreementwith the republicanled house?
　　the president: wendell, letamp。rsquo。s just take the recent example of immigration. a bipartisan billpassed out of the senate, cosponsored by not just democrats but some very conservativerepublicans who recognize that the system currently is broken and if, in fact we put moreresources on the border, provide a path in which those undocumented workers whoamp。rsquo。ve beenliving here for a long time and may have ties here are ing out of the shadows, paying theirtaxes, paying a fine, learning english