OK, so Bush is now saying that despite helping/saving the US in the Iraq war, we shouldn't expect any support from him. That's fine, after all we went in for our own reasons, and we think (as a nation, at least) that it was the right thing to do.
However, surely if he is so concerned about "doing the right thing", why is he so loathe to do something that will help those living under oppressive and terrorist regimes at G8? His tone makes it sound like we are asking him to help us, not to help those in less fortunate countries.
Now, I didn't do that well in History GCSE, and never took it any further than that, but I do remember a rather important speech by a man by the name of President Woodrow Wilson, known as "The Fourteen Points". Along with obvious guff about Germany pulling out of Belgium, it included these two memorable nuggets:
3: The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.
5: A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.
I think the spirit of these points is clear: unhampered trade (i.e. ridding ourselves of unfair subsidies) and an end to colonial rule where those in the colonies wish it.
Now, whilst I agree the EU is as bad as the US in the first one, we DID at least comply with the second one. The second one is more to blame for the state of the third world than the first, especially as the first doesn't really apply to these countries directly.
How is this nothing to do with the US? I don't get it?!
We're not asking him to help the sausage-munchers or the cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys. Surely the US with such an appreciable African-descended population, a population that proudly refers to itself as "African-American", a nation that has a lot to answer for in Somalia, the Sudan and a number of other African nations, should be more open to ideas about Africa. Of course, I'm sure Dubbya's voice doesn't fully represent 280-million opinions. But I think he should think before spouting off such rubbish.
However, surely if he is so concerned about "doing the right thing", why is he so loathe to do something that will help those living under oppressive and terrorist regimes at G8? His tone makes it sound like we are asking him to help us, not to help those in less fortunate countries.
Now, I didn't do that well in History GCSE, and never took it any further than that, but I do remember a rather important speech by a man by the name of President Woodrow Wilson, known as "The Fourteen Points". Along with obvious guff about Germany pulling out of Belgium, it included these two memorable nuggets:
3: The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.
5: A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.
I think the spirit of these points is clear: unhampered trade (i.e. ridding ourselves of unfair subsidies) and an end to colonial rule where those in the colonies wish it.
Now, whilst I agree the EU is as bad as the US in the first one, we DID at least comply with the second one. The second one is more to blame for the state of the third world than the first, especially as the first doesn't really apply to these countries directly.
How is this nothing to do with the US? I don't get it?!
We're not asking him to help the sausage-munchers or the cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys. Surely the US with such an appreciable African-descended population, a population that proudly refers to itself as "African-American", a nation that has a lot to answer for in Somalia, the Sudan and a number of other African nations, should be more open to ideas about Africa. Of course, I'm sure Dubbya's voice doesn't fully represent 280-million opinions. But I think he should think before spouting off such rubbish.
