Posted on 03/27/2003 11:25:13 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:42:07 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations walked out of a debate on the Iraqi war Thursday after Iraq's ambassador accused the United States of trying to exterminate the Iraqi people.
"I did sit through quite a long part of what he had to say but I'd heard enough," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Haven't we all.......
Young sees growing support for war with Iraq
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By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
More countries likely will fall in behind the United States once hostilities with Iraq begin, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations predicted yesterday in Louisville.
Andrew Young, who was U.N. ambassador under President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s, said he thinks international support will grow even more in the effort to transform Iraq into a peaceful and stable country.
''We may find that President Bush has pulled a real coup,'' said Young, who supported Al Gore in the 2000 election. ''I think we're going to be proven right in the U.N.''
Young was in Louisville to address the annual Salute to Catholic School Alumni dinner, an event honoring outstanding graduates sponsored by the Catholic Education Foundation.
Young, a former aide to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was Atlanta's mayor during much of the 1980s. He is now chairman of Good Works International, which consults with governments and corporations on economic development in Africa and the Caribbean, and is a former president of the National Council of Churches.
He told reporters yesterday that he thought a war against Iraq was justified. Diplomatic efforts to win U.N. support and to disarm Iraq went on long enough, he said.
''You negotiate as long as you can -- but sometimes . . . you have to resort to force,'' Young said during a press conference. Delays could cost lives, he argued, just as in World War II when the United States hesitated, despite knowing that the Nazis were killing Jews.
And fighting a desert war later in the spring or in summer could make it more dangerous for U.S. soldiers. ''The longer it takes for us to act, the more difficult it is,'' he said.
The former ambassador said he didn't think the rift on the Security Council -- and criticism that the United Nations is failing to enforce its resolutions against Iraq -- would undermine the institution.
''I was frankly disgusted with the U.N.,'' he said. But with the organization playing vital world humanitarian and economic roles, ''you can't get along'' without it.
While the United States is asserting its leadership with its military in Iraq, he said, it must balance that with significant efforts to rebuild the country.
Young was a member of the U.S. Commission on National Security, a 14-member panel of military and civilian leaders, when it issued a report in 2000 criticizing the Pentagon's strategy for fighting two wars at once and suggesting that the nation more carefully weigh whether foreign-intervention efforts are worth the risks.
In a 1991 speech in Atlanta, Young urged a halt to allied bombing attacks on Iraq to allow for negotiations in the dispute over the invasion of Kuwait. But yesterday he said he supported the war to free Kuwait.
For now, Young said, Americans should support the nation's troops in the field. ''I hope with all my heart they will find a quick and easy victory,'' he said.
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