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Saint Marcus
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Scio Me Nihil Scire
Jan 1970
time: 06:17
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From two CNN articles:
A senior French government minister has attacked the U.S. approach to fighting terrorism as "simplistic."
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told France Inter radio on Wednesday: "We are friends of the United States, we are friends of that people and we will remain so. But we are threatened today by a new simplism which consists in reducing everything to the war on terrorism. That is their approach, but we cannot accept that idea. You have got to tackle the root causes, the situations, poverty, injustice."
Vedrine said the U.S. was showing signs of acting "unilaterally, without consulting others, taking decisions based on its own view of the world and its own interests ... refusing any multilateral negotiation that could limit their decision-making, sovereignty and freedom of action."
Vedrine's criticism is the latest indictation of unease among some of America's European allies over the direction of the post-Afghanistan anti-terror campaign.
Although France was among those European countries that backed the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, it has joined Germany and Britain in expressing concerns.
Vedrine said the rhetoric coming out of Washington was confirmation that the Republican administration approached foreign policy unilaterally.
Vedrine also criticised U.S. support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians.
He said that Europeans opposed it and that the American vision of globalisation was not one France shared.
"Europeans are unanimous in not supporting the Middle East policy of the White House," Vedrine said.
"We think it is a mistake blindly to accept the policy of pure repression conducted by Ariel Sharon ... we are saying this and we are making a number of other proposals."
Vedrine is not the only European politician to criticise Bush's speech.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described it as domestic electioneering.
"I thought the State of the Union speech was best understood by the fact that there are mid-term congressional elections coming up in November," Straw said.
At the annual security conference in Munich at the weekend, Ludger Volmer, a state secretary at the German foreign ministry, said: "The terror argument cannot be used to settle old scores."
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France has again warned Washington of the dangers of unilateralism in its approach to the war on terrorism.
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, speaking at a European parliamentarians' conference on money laundering on Friday, spoke two days after his Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine criticised what he called U.S. President George W. Bush's simplistic approach to world politics.
"We hope the United States does not give in to the strong temptation of unilateralism," Jospin said.
France has strongly backed the campaign against terrorism since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
"But this does not mean that we must not reflect lucidly on the lessons we have learned from September 11," Jospin said.
"We cannot reduce the problems of the world to the single dimension of the struggle against terrorism, despite its pressing importance, nor rely on the predominance of military means," he added.
Jospin also said international cooperation was needed to tackle terrorism.
"Our conception of the world aims to create a more balanced international community ... based on a multilateral approach," he said.
"Cooperation means members of the international community can tackle together the roots of problems, since none of us can hope to resolve them alone."
The criticism from Paris is the latest indictation of unease among some of America's European allies over the direction of the post-Afghanistan anti-terror campaign.
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CNN quickvote poll:
Q: Is U.S. foreign policy too simplistic?
A: Yes: 61%, 24825 votes; No 39%, 16175 votes
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mactbone
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Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Sep 2001
time: 23:17
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Alright, if you feel that the interests of everyone else in the world outweigh the interests of your own country, why not, istead of paying taxes, just give it all to some poor African country? Or invite all of the poor people to come live in your country. Or stop all global conflict, no matter the cost to your own country. Or bring down the walls of nationalism and form a new super country... whoops, I guess the last one is becoming true.
You complain about the US having it's own agenda, yet each and every one of your countries has it's own agenda that does not benefit everyone in the entire world. Even the French had his own agenda in stating that. First, he does not want to be seen as America's lapdog. Second, he wants to further his agenda in the ME, possibly because his country, did or is selling arms to people in the region. Third, he's covered his bases now, he supported the US earlier, now he doesn't, so he effectively flip-flopped in a political manuever.
Next time when you want to complain about the US taking it's own peoples' interests first, remember that each country is basically a family, and family comes first.
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Kyle
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Evil and I'm also a Capitalist
Jan 1970
time: 00:17
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quote:
Originally posted by Saint Marcus
From two CNN articles:
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine told France Inter radio on Wednesday: "We are friends of the United States, we are friends of that people and we will remain so. |
Sorry, have a hard time believing that.
quote:
Vedrine said the U.S. was showing signs of acting "unilaterally, without consulting others, taking decisions based on its own view of the world and its own interests ... refusing any multilateral negotiation that could limit their decision-making, sovereignty and freedom of action." |
Wow, he just summed up French foreign policy. Wasn't that why they withdrew from the NATO command structure?
quote:
Vedrine said the rhetoric coming out of Washington was confirmation that the Republican administration approached foreign policy unilaterally. |
No, just that the US just suffered a major attack against it and it's allies, in general, are unwilling to assist in defeating the cause of it (terrorism).
quote:
"Europeans are unanimous in not supporting the Middle East policy of the White House," Vedrine said. |
That's unfortunate, too bad the EU has no diplomatic captial in the area.
quote:
"We think it is a mistake blindly to accept the policy of pure repression conducted by Ariel Sharon ... we are saying this and we are making a number of other proposals." |
No, they simply accept Arafat's policy of pure repression and genocide of the Israeli state.
quote:
Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described it as domestic electioneering.
"I thought the State of the Union speech was best understood by the fact that there are mid-term congressional elections coming up in November," Straw said. |
quote:
At the annual security conference in Munich at the weekend, Ludger Volmer, a state secretary at the German foreign ministry, said: "The terror argument cannot be used to settle old scores." |
Ah, good to see our German allies support the likes of Saddam Hussein.
quote:
France has strongly backed the campaign against terrorism since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
"But this does not mean that we must not reflect lucidly on the lessons we have learned from September 11," Jospin said.
"We cannot reduce the problems of the world to the single dimension of the struggle against terrorism, despite its pressing importance, nor rely on the predominance of military means," he added. |
Why not? We tried it the other way, and it didn't work.
quote:
Jospin also said international cooperation was needed to tackle terrorism. |
Agreed, but no one is willing to do what's necessary.
quote:
"Our conception of the world aims to create a more balanced international community ... based on a multilateral approach," he said.
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In other words, "we're not strong enough to do things on our own, so no one else is allowed to either."
It would be great if we could work together to get rid of terrorism, Saddam (unlikely, as he owes certain nations money), etc. Unfortunately, internal politics and anti-US sentiment are getting in the way.
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10-02-2002 21:21
Whatever shall we do to live down such an indignity? 
The US is the worlds biggest economy and only remaining superpower but that doesn´t give them the right to treat the earth like their own private plaything. There´s approx. 176 countries on this planet. The US is ONE of those countries, no more, no less!
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