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Friday, June 27, 2003
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Mandela Criticizes Bush Over Iraq War
[AP World News]
D. Remer of Political News & Analysis comments:
There are true men of peace in the world, then there are those who mouth the words for political gain while making war with their power. Along with Mahatma Ghandi, the Dalai Lama, and French President Chirac, all committed deeply to the cause of peace and avoidance of the horrors of war; add the name of Nelson Mandela. This week he is quoted in the Title article hyperlinked above as saying:
"For anybody, especially the leader of a super state, to act outside the United Nations (news - web sites) is something that must be condemned by everybody..."
Nelson Mandela believes in the original intent and purpose of the U.N. and has suffered much in the cause for equality and freedom for all persons in his own country. In total contrast to Mandela, stands the United States President George W. Bush. The use of the word peace by these two men is as highly contrasted as their skin color. George Bush, leading up to the invasion of Iraq and since, has made numerous speeches touting Peace as the goal and objective of his administration in foreign affairs. Yet, his decisions and actions reflect the hawkish nature of his key advisors including V.P. Cheney, who advocate the exercise of U.S. might to force any nation that has the potential to disrupt or interfere with America's intent to spread its version of economic, political, and cultural values throughout the world.
It is a shame that the words of President Bush carry such bandwidth throughout the world while those of Mandela will be quoted for a day or two and fade. Mandela became president of the very country and people who jailed him for years for exercising his human right to freedom of speech and his call for an end to Apartheid. Yet, this man of peace, after ascending to office, made not a single move or uttered a single word of vengeance, retaliation, or retribution for his suffering.
It seems clear to me that the words of Mandela should ring louder and longer in the press than those of poltical double speak opportunists. But, this is not an ideal world. We can however, be thankful that there are persons in the world such as Mandela who maintain idealistic standards by which the rest of us can measure the true value of daily events and actions.
8:55:20 PM Google It!
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"When shall it be said in any country of the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance or distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes not oppressive; the rational world is my friend because I am friend of its happiness; when these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and government." Thomas Paine Posted By David Remer, Political News & Analysis
5:35:21 PM Google It!
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David Remer (Political News & Analysis) found the following quote which seems so appropriate for the U.S. struggling with a weakened economy, high taxes and voter apathy.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage. --Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian
The bondage of which Sir Tytler speaks is evident today in America through the growing of the American Aristocracy and the bondage of working class citizens to taxes for the undeterminable future as a result of an approaching and growing 7 trillion dollar federal government debt.
7:34:01 AM Google It!
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News Analysis: Bush Team: A Sense of Harmony Felt Within Diplomatic Circles
[New York Times: International News]
David Remer of Political News & Analysis comments:
Finally, something I can applaud the Bush Administration for. (Please note: I did not say President Bush). This excellent article lays out in clean detail the two pronged strong arm approach that Condoleeza Rice and Collin Powell are taking to bring peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this circumstance, I believe the administration may have hit upon a strategy that has the potential of living up to a satisfactory end.
This article is a must read... even for Democrats. The Bush administration, thanks to the leadership of the State Department, Collin Powell, Secretary of State Rice and Elliot Abrams of the National Security Council, may bring about what no president has been able to for over 20 years, a peace accord between Israel and a new Palestinian nation.
I have the feeling that our President, in a rare moment of wisdom, realized the middle east issue was way over his head, and told his department leaders to work together and get the job done. Having been given the rope to hang themselves with, they chose to succeed instead. If peace is brokered, one must admit that nothing succeeds like success, and the administration will finally have entered an endeavor with a successful outcome and with appropriate means applied toward the end.
With hope, the president will not decide at the last minute to put his two cents in and muck it all up. If he leaves the ball in Rice's, Powell's and Abrams' court, he might just have something legitimate to take to the polls in 2004. Question is, can his ego stand back and let success happen?
3:48:04 AM Google It!
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Poll gives Tories lead over Labour. Politics: Conservatives two points ahead after government hit by reshuffle controversy and 'dodgy dossier'.
[Guardian Unlimited]
David Remer of Political News & Analysis comments:
First a quote from the article at the top:
Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's communications chief, believes that the claims undermine trust in Mr Blair, which explains the fall in support for his leader.
Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, said the Tories had turned a corner. Mr Letwin, who recently joked that the Tories stood no chance of winning the next election, told a Westminster lunch: "The Tories have turned a corner... I never thought that in my lifetime as a politician I would see the Conservatives in power, but I do now believe there is a possibility."
Now, substitute, Alastair Campbell with Ari Fleischer, Oliver Letwin with Tom Daschle, and the Tories with Democrats. Then add the following line from the article:
As Downing Street struggles to fight off allegations that it misled the country over Iraq's banned weapons...
Substitue Downing Street with Whitehouse, and you get the picture. Bush's polls are slipping too. And there is plenty of time yet for the American people to become aware of the great Bush hoodwink which cost over 170 American lives and untold American injuries, and umpteen tax dollars for a personal vendetta or vision of power in the world.
3:31:06 AM Google It!
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Bush Calls for Changes in Africa to End Wars and Promote Trade. President Bush demanded Liberia's leader step down, called for change in Zimbabwe and for the dispatching of an envoy to Sudan. By Richard W. Stevenson. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
David Remer of Political News & Analysis comments:
Now that headline just about sums up compassionate conservatism, doesn't it? President Bush calls for an end to African wars, not because men, women, and children are killed, abducted, raped and tortured, but, because, the U.S. needs someone to trade with to keep its economy afloat. He is going to regret those tax cuts to his wealthy compatriots, I do believe, since the African's are too busy to just stop what they are doing and follow President Bush's requests. I can hear Bush now, "If you people would just be more like us Americans and stop all this fussing, you will be much better off as capitalists." And the African's response, "We don't have capital to be capitalists with, want to lend us some?"
3:17:52 AM Google It!
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With Deadline Near, States Are in Budget Discord. An unusually high number of states lack budget agreements as they face the end of their fiscal years. By Jodi Wilgoren. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
D. Remer of Political News & Analysis comments:
It is refreshing to see governments in the U.S. frantically battle to avoid bankruptcy only to find the tills empty. Refreshing and ironic since our government is considering revoking the bankruptcy option for working folks, offering restructured lifetime repayment instead. Hah! Shoe is on the other foot, how does it fee-e-e-l ?
3:08:02 AM Google It!
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Amazon destruction speeds up. New data shows the world's biggest rainforest is being cleared at a dramatically increased rate.
Developing world faces cancer crisis. Cancer cases in the developing world will reach 10 million a year by 2015 without better access to radiation therapy, say experts.
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David Remer of Political News & Analysis comments:
Now the above stories would at first glance, seem to have nothing in common. But, I kept being drawn back to the two together as I considered what if anything to comment on in their regard. Then, it struck me. Both stories raise issues that demand sophisticated value decisions in response. The depletion of the Amazon rain forest should be a concern for the entire world. Once it is gone, human health on this planet may be at grave unresolveable risk. The rain forests cleanse the air, shape weather patterns and replenish breathable oxygen for the planet and its species on a global scale.
The solution to saving the rain forest involves the sovereignty of at least two South American countries which do not have the economic resources to subsidize the saving of the forests. Yet, getting the rest of the nations in the world to address and assist this global health crisis would require the kind of leadership that only nations such as the U.S. and Great Britain could promote. Alas, their focus is far more narrowly focused on trade unions, oil and what war to move to next.
In 12 years there will be 10 million cases of cancer in the developing (read poorer) nations. This health problem will touch not only the victims but their families and could easily affect 50 million people in the third world. The remedy is available. Radiation therapy. But, the proliferation of radioactive materials to any 3rd world countries is exactly what the U.S. and Great Britain are trying to put a stop to, out of fears that the materials could be used to make 'dirty bombs'. So, do we abandon the millions of cancer victims of tomorrow to prevent the possibility of a terrorist attack today, or, do provide the radiation therapy as an installment toward eliminating the seed beds of terrorism tomorrow?
Hmmm.... I am hard pressed to find any hope in the leadership of Tony Blair or George W. Bush to muster such sophisticated thinking and compassion to even give such issues a first glance, let alone deliberate their solutions. Perhaps the U.N.? Nah... they are a reactionary organization, once the rain forests are beyond saving, they will deliberate the issue, and once the cancer and lack of treatment heaves into social unrest, only then will they address the issue.
I believe in God, just not the kind of God who intervenes in the messes that humans create for themselves. So, not much hope their either.
Hopeless? Not while I have a keyboard and an internet connection.
2:55:14 AM Google It!
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© Copyright 2004 David Remer.
Last update: 1/29/2004; 9:14:01 PM.
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