Notice the new "Axis of Evil Lite" of Cuba, Belarus, Sudan, and Burma. Axis of Evil Lite, tastes bad - less filling - easier to invade when you are out of troops.
A transcript with audio excerpts and analysis by The Times’s David E. Sanger, plus links to related articles and Web sites.
Important points:
"Energy
And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists, who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments and raise the price of oil and do great harm to our economy. It’s in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply, and the way forward is through technology.
War on Terror
With the distance of time, we find ourselves debating the causes of conflict and the course we have followed. Such debates are essential when a great democracy faces great questions. Yet one question has surely been settled: that to win the war on terror we must take the fight to the enemy.
In the minds of the terrorists, this war began well before Sept. 11 and will not end until their radical vision is fulfilled. And these past five years have given us a much clearer view of the nature of this enemy. Al Qaeda and its followers are Sunni extremists, possessed by hatred and commanded by a harsh and narrow ideology. Take almost any principle of civilization, and their goal is the opposite. They preach with threats, instruct with bullets and bombs, and promise paradise for the murder of the innocent.
Our enemies are quite explicit about their intentions. They want to overthrow moderate governments, and establish safe havens from which to plan and carry out new attacks on our country....And Osama bin Laden declared: “Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us.”
Iraq
This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in. Every one of us wishes this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk.
In order to make progress toward this goal, the Iraqi government must stop the sectarian violence in its capital. But the Iraqis are not yet ready to do this on their own. So we are deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and marines to Iraq. The vast majority will go to Baghdad, where they will help Iraqi forces to clear and secure neighborhoods, and serve as advisers embedded in Iraqi Army units.
If American forces step back before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would be overrun by extremists on all sides. We could expect an epic battle between Shia extremists backed by Iran, and Sunni extremists aided by Al Qaeda and supporters of the old regime. A contagion of violence could spill out across the country, and in time the entire region could be drawn into the conflict.
Foreign Policy
The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran and made it clear that the world will not allow the regime in Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons. Other members of the quartet — the U.N., the E.U., and Russia — Together with our partners in China and Japan, Russia and South Korea, we’re pursuing intensive diplomacy to achieve a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons. We will continue to speak out for the cause of freedom in places like Cuba, Belarus and Burma and continue to awaken the conscience of the world to save the people of Darfur."
Important points:
"Energy
And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists, who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments and raise the price of oil and do great harm to our economy. It’s in our vital interest to diversify America’s energy supply, and the way forward is through technology.
War on Terror
With the distance of time, we find ourselves debating the causes of conflict and the course we have followed. Such debates are essential when a great democracy faces great questions. Yet one question has surely been settled: that to win the war on terror we must take the fight to the enemy.
In the minds of the terrorists, this war began well before Sept. 11 and will not end until their radical vision is fulfilled. And these past five years have given us a much clearer view of the nature of this enemy. Al Qaeda and its followers are Sunni extremists, possessed by hatred and commanded by a harsh and narrow ideology. Take almost any principle of civilization, and their goal is the opposite. They preach with threats, instruct with bullets and bombs, and promise paradise for the murder of the innocent.
Our enemies are quite explicit about their intentions. They want to overthrow moderate governments, and establish safe havens from which to plan and carry out new attacks on our country....And Osama bin Laden declared: “Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us.”
Iraq
This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in. Every one of us wishes this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises unkept, our friends abandoned, and our own security at risk.
In order to make progress toward this goal, the Iraqi government must stop the sectarian violence in its capital. But the Iraqis are not yet ready to do this on their own. So we are deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and marines to Iraq. The vast majority will go to Baghdad, where they will help Iraqi forces to clear and secure neighborhoods, and serve as advisers embedded in Iraqi Army units.
If American forces step back before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would be overrun by extremists on all sides. We could expect an epic battle between Shia extremists backed by Iran, and Sunni extremists aided by Al Qaeda and supporters of the old regime. A contagion of violence could spill out across the country, and in time the entire region could be drawn into the conflict.
Foreign Policy
The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran and made it clear that the world will not allow the regime in Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons. Other members of the quartet — the U.N., the E.U., and Russia — Together with our partners in China and Japan, Russia and South Korea, we’re pursuing intensive diplomacy to achieve a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons. We will continue to speak out for the cause of freedom in places like Cuba, Belarus and Burma and continue to awaken the conscience of the world to save the people of Darfur."
6 comments:
I know he would never in his right mind do it, nor would any world leader at this juncture, but that little cluster of countries he mentioned (Belarus, Burma, and Cuba), I think he dodges the biggest one of them all: Russia. Sure, I understand, Russia isn't perfect, but does the current administration realize what's going on over there, or are they just choosing to ignore it? The centralization of power by Putin is staggering. His control over the media, his government's suppression of the Chechnyans, the lack of democracy in the regions thanks to government appointments, and now a string of mysterious murders of anti-Putin administration individuals (Litvienko, Politkovskaya, and I'm sure there are more). Russia is moving in the opposite direction in terms of democratic reform. All I can say is that I'll be glad when Putin steps down in 2008 (if he doesn't change the Constitution, which he can due to his support in the Duma).
I will call this a blog easter egg, extra credit to whoever can explain in class why American should hate Belarus.
Hey I know why do I get extra credit if I blog it? I mean I am no brown noser but face it I need all the extra credit I can get.
What?
If only he meant what he said about energy reform. For some reason I can't make myself believe him. Oh yeah, maybe it's because he talks about only once a year and then doesn't do anything about it.
I wonder if we would have gone to war with Iraq if we didn't depend on the Middle East for oil? Most definitely we probably wouldn't have, but maybe in all actuality it's a good thing that we do depend on them for oil. Maybe it’s not a good thing for us, but a good thing for the Iraqi people.
How many times have we heard that the reason that we don't help African countries is because they have nothing to offer us? If we depended on Rwanda for oil do you think we would have let a genocide take place right in front of our eyes? Probably not. If we depended on Sudan or Darfur for oil don't you think we would have gone in there by now, regardless of what their leaders want? Most likely.
So while African countries are cursed with having no oil, Middle Eastern countries have been blessed by having oil. Whether we agree with the war or not, we may be able to agree that we have given a country a chance to remove itself from tyrannical and oppressive rule. If Iraq had no oil, would we find ourselves asking why we hadn't done more to help the people of a country that had nothing to offer us? Would we just continue to watch people die?
So maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to go over there for oil. It might be a self-serving reason but at least in the meantime we were able to help some people that otherwise would have received no help. I'm sure there are many African countries that wished we would come to their country just for oil (and in the meantime help some people).
Just a random thought.
Josh Evirs
POLS 389
(In response to what Josh Evirs wrote) You might be interested in an article that I discovered. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020422/silverstein
It talks about the United State's policies related to West African Oil, and it seems like it may have some more in depth info about what our current policy is and how it differs from the Middle East. I'm not sure about the legitimacy of the source and it was written a long time ago, but if nothing else it gives a perspective.
Post a Comment