The Nation: The Great Pretender (Bush at the G-8)

[marmar]

editorial | posted June 7, 2007 (June 25, 2007 issue)
The Great Pretender


The legacy of the Bush Administration will be measured not just by the destruction it unleashed in Iraq but by the hatred of the United States that its other policies have ignited around the world. The June G-8 meeting of industrialized nations provided a chance to undo some of this damage and reassert American internationalism. Instead, the Administration chose to pursue a phony internationalism, wrapping its contempt for the concerns of other nations in a ribbon of false global goodwill. In this guise the Administration continued its earlier attacks on international law and cooperation--from its spurning of the Kyoto Protocol to its rejection of the International Criminal Court and its withdrawal from the antiballistic missile treaty.

The Administration's last-minute proposal on climate change, although a welcome admission of the problem, was a case in point. Recommending only vague, voluntary targets for controlling greenhouse-gas emissions, George W. Bush's initiative clashed with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's call for mandatory UN-imposed caps. A "Trojan horse," according to Germany's environmental minister, Bush's plan would actually undermine international efforts to combat global warming.

Similarly, Bush's call for $30 billion over the next five years to fight the global AIDS epidemic was intended to spur increased commitments from other wealthy nations. But although the United States leads the world in dollar contributions, Bush's expanded AIDS plan has all the flaws of his original one. Largely bypassing the multilateral Global Fund, Bush has created a parallel and redundant program that, against the international public health consensus, continues to insist on abstinence-only education and restrictions on needle exchange.

The Administration's approach to Iran and nuclear nonproliferation is another case in point. The White House's support for the EU-3 talks and efforts to win UN Security Council sanctions against Iran may seem to be in the spirit of internationalist cooperation. But up close it looks more like an attempt to further Bush's commitment to regime change and domination of the Persian Gulf--the very policies that may be driving Iran's uranium-enrichment program. As long as the United States refuses to talk with Tehran about nuclear proliferation or to provide it with the security reassurances it needs, the White House sabotages the multilateral approach it now says it wants to champion. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070625/editors

[opihimoimoi]

1. Empty Language Syndrome....the Bushies talk with empty language

Where is the BEEF?

Its all BS Crap....