George Bush’s administration yesterday blasted another lethal hole in the vital structure of multilateral arms agreements that has so far protected most of the world from the worst dangers of the modern military age. America’s lone, wanton wrecking of long-running negotiations to enforce the 1972 treaty banning biological or germ weapons is an insult to the pact’s 142 other signatories, a body-blow for the treaty itself and a major setback for international efforts to agree practical curbs on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
By this action, the US suggests that its national security interests, narrowly defined, and the commercial interests of its dominant biotechnology sector should take precedence over responsible global collaboration to meet a common threat. By rejecting the proposed inspection regime, it further, dangerously, suggests to others that the US is not really worried about germ-warfare controls and wants to develop its own, advanced biological weapons.
This in turn could have a serious impact on continuing efforts to bolster the equally important chemical weapons convention. Since Tony Blair’s government has been particularly active in promoting the BWC enforcement protocol, it may now be expected to be particularly active in condemning this latest piece of Bush vandalism. Jack Straw should summon the US ambassador, a Bush appointee, to the Foreign Office and demand an explanation.
The US move confirms a pattern of reckless, unilateralist behaviour on arms control, as on environmental and other issues. Since taking office, Mr Bush has spoken in grandiose terms of the need for ‘new thinking’ and for a ‘new strategic framework’. But to date, this supposed post-cold war global security vision has largely amounted to trashing existing agreements without any clear idea of what to put in their place. The Guardian online article 26th July 2001, ‘Proliferator-in-chief’
Kennedy’s political career was characterised by his foreign policy. And it was issues arising from his approach to the Cold War that may have inspired his alleged killer. Murders that Shocked Britain
Senate Bill 28:34 authorises the following: gives the President power to initiate covert actions – this has never before been given to the President; prevents Congress from stopping the President’s initiation of covert actions; allows the President to use any federal departments, agencies or entities to operate or finance any covert action … Bill Cooper, Behold a Pale Horse
Opinion polls show that half the German population is openly critical of US leadership for a number of reasons: its failure to consult its allies as promised, its refusal to sign up to joint action against global warming, its protectionist stance on trade issues such as steel and agriculture. BBC News, 2002
’Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world. George Washington
The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. George Washington
Throughout much of its history the AFL-CIO and other US labor organizations have worked with CIA and multinational corporations to overthrow democratically elected governments, collaborated with dictators against progressive labor movements, supported reactionary labor movements against progressive governments, worked with corporate America to organize racist and protectionist campaigns against foreign countries, and encouraged racist campaigns against immigrant workers. Lee Siu Hin
No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine. William Blum
With each newly minted crisis US leaders roll out the same time-tested scenario. They start demonizing a foreign leader ... charging them with being communistic or otherwise dictatorial, dangerously aggressive, power hungry, genocidal, given to terrorism or drug trafficking, ready to deny us access to vital resources, harboring weapons of mass destruction, or just inexplicably ‘anti-American’ and ‘anti-West’. Lacking any information to the contrary, the frightened public ... are swept along. Michael Parenti
You have broader considerations that might follow what you might call the ‘falling domino’ principle. You have a row of dominoes set up. You knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly. So you have the beginning of a disintegration what would have the most profound influences. Dwight D Eisenhower
The purpose of foreign policy is not to provide an outlet for our own sentiments of hope or indignation, it is to shape real events in a real world. John F Kennedy
We must face problems which do not lend themselves to easy or quick or permanent solutions. And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscient – that we are only 6 percent of the world’s population – that we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankind – that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity – and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem. John F Kennedy, November 1961
Acting on our own, by ourselves, we cannot establish justice throughout the world; we cannot insure its domestic tranquility, or provide for its common defense, or promote its general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. But joined with other free nations, we can do all this and more. We can assist the developing nations to throw off the yoke of poverty. We can balance our worldwide trade and payments at the highest possible level of growth. We can mount a deterrent powerful enough to deter any aggression. And ultimately we can help to achieve a world of law and free choice, banishing the world of war and coercion. John F Kennedy, July 1962
What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children – not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women – not merely peace in our time but peace for all time. John F Kennedy, 10th June 1963
The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough – more than enough – of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on – not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace. ibid.
We must seek a world of peace – a world in which peoples dwell together in mutual respect and work together in mutual regard – a world where peace is not a mere interlude between wars, but an incentive to the creative energies of humanity. We will not find such a peace today, or even tomorrow. The obstacles to hope are large and menacing. Yet the goal of a peaceful world – today and tomorrow – must shape our decisions and inspire our purposes. So we are all idealists. We are all visionaries. Let it not be said of this Atlantic generation that we left ideals and visions to the past, nor purpose and determination to our adversaries. We have come too far, we have sacrificed too much, to disdain the future now. John F Kennedy, 25th June 1963
No foreign policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of success if born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none. Henry Kissinger
NAFTA will represent the most creative step toward a new world order taken by any group of countries since the end of the Cold War, and the first step toward an even larger vision of a free-trade zone for the entire Western Hemisphere ... NAFTA is not a conventional trade agreement, but the architecture of a new international system. Henry Kissinger, The Los Angeles Times 18th July 1993
I can think of no faster way to unite the American people behind George W Bush than a terrorist attack on an American target overseas. And I believe George W Bush will quickly unite the American people through his foreign policy. Henry Kissinger
The American foreign policy trauma of the sixties and seventies was caused by applying valid principles to unsuitable conditions. Henry Kissinger
Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. Henry Kissinger
I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves. Henry Kissinger
But where our values and our interests are at stake and where we can make a difference we must be prepared to do so. Bill Clinton
An alternative policy offering real security would require ending the support of oppressive rulers in the Middle East and elsewhere, pursuing a more balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, changing our oil-dependent energy policy, and replacing the drive for overwhelming global military dominance with policies for the peaceful prevention of atrocities and deadly conflict. Friends Committee on National Legislation