Posted on 03/18/2008 4:56:09 PM PDT by calcowgirl
Americans and Europeans share a common goal – to build an enduring peace based on freedom. Our democracies today are strong and vibrant. Together we can tackle the diverse challenges we face, whether radical religious fanatics who use terror as their weapon of choice, the disturbing turn towards autocracy in Russia or the looming threats of climate change and the degradation of our planet.
But the key word is “together”. We need to renew and revitalise our democratic solidarity. We need to strengthen our transatlantic alliance as the core of a new global compact – a League of Democracies – that can harness the great power of the more than 100 democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests.
At the heart of this new compact must be mutual respect and trust. We Americans recall the words of our founders in the Declaration of Independence, that we must pay “decent respect to the opinions of mankind”. Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed.
We need to listen to the views and respect the collective will of our democratic allies. When we believe that international action is necessary, whether military, economic or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must also be willing to be persuaded by them.
The nations of the Nato alliance and the European Union, meanwhile, must have the ability and the will to act in defence of freedom and economic prosperity. They must spend the money necessary to build effective military and civilian capabilities that can be deployed around the world, from the Balkans to Afghanistan, from Chad to East Timor.
We welcome European leadership to make the world a better and safer place. We look forward to France’s full reintegration into Nato. And we strongly support the EU’s efforts to build an effective European Security and Defence Policy. A strong EU, a strong Nato and a true strategic partnership between them is profoundly in our interest.
We all have to live up to our own high standards of morality and international responsibility. We will fight the terrorists and at the same time defend the rights that are the foundations of our societies. We cannot torture or treat inhumanely the suspected terrorists that we have captured. We must close the detention facility at Guantánamo and come to a common international understanding on the disposition of dangerous detainees under our control.
International responsibility also means preserving our common home. The risks of global warming have no borders. Americans and Europeans need to get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand over a much-diminished world to our grandchildren. We need to reinvigorate the US-European partnership on climate change where we have so many common interests at stake. The US and Europe must lead together to encourage the participation of the rest of the world, including most importantly, the developing economic powerhouses of China and India.
I have introduced legislation that would require a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but that is just a start. We need a successor to Kyoto, a cap-and-trade system that delivers the necessary environmental impact in an economically responsible manner. New technologies hold great promise. We need to unleash the power and innovation of the marketplace in order to meet our environmental challenges. Right now safe, climate-friendly nuclear energy is a critical way both to improve the quality of our air and to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources.
That dependence, I am afraid, has become a vulnerability for both the US and Europe and a source of leverage for the oil and gas exporting autocracies. The US needs to wean itself off oil faster. Europe needs a comprehensive energy policy so that Russia’s oil and gas monopolies cannot behave as agents of political influence.
The bottom line is that none of us can act as if our only concerns are within our own borders. We cannot define our national interests so narrowly that we fail to see how intimately our fate is bound up with that of the rest of humanity. There is such a thing as good international citizenship. If we wish to be models for others, we must be model citizens ourselves.
Certainly the US must be that model country. Leadership today means something different than it did in the years after the second world war, when Europe and the other democracies were recovering from the devastation of war and the US was the only democratic superpower. Today, there is the powerful collective voice of the EU, India, Japan, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, South Africa, Turkey and Israel, to name just a few of the leading democracies. And there are the struggling young democracies, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, that need and deserve help – more, in fact, than we have been giving. In Russia, democracy has been temporarily suppressed, but we all have an interest in seeing this great nation return to the democratic path soon.
This is not idealism. It is the truest form of realism. It is the democracies of the world that will provide the pillars upon which we can and must build an enduring peace.
The writer is senator for Arizona and is the Republican nominee for the 2008 US presidential elections
I just love FR these days.. all the usual suspects show up on their white horses and tell everying else how screwed up they are..
everying=everyone
Huh, can't handle the truth, thus the ad hominems.
BTW I've been watching your sorry-a$$ed posts for a number of years and frankly, they are way past old.
Based on what?
and to answer the next question about cap and trade, etc.etc, like it or not being green is in vogue,
So... we should go along with anything that is "in vogue?" Communism was in vogue in the 40s, too.
...just like abortion was in vogue when Ronald Reagan signed a bill legalising abortion when he was Governor of California in the late 60's,
HOGWASH! Smearing Reagan to prop-up McCain is typical trollish behavior. Do some research on Reagan's abortion bill--he didn't sign it because it was "in vogue."
...instead of damning McCain maybe you should go out to your fellow voters and tell them about the global warming scam, instead of feeling good and ranting in your echo chamber.
Dane--I asked a simple question:
Do you support global warming regulation, taxing greenhouse gases, or a cap-and-trade program?
Dane, Calcowgirl is dedicated to posting anti-McCain threads. She thinks that Hillary and McCain are identical and that shows ME...she has NOT done her homework.
Maybe she is working for the Hillary campaign?
McCain has stated over and over that he supports nuclear power. It is on his site and in his speeches. What is wrong with our industrys working to develop alternative sources of energy? I personally think it is a good idea.
Again, this article screams why John McLame is NOT worthy to be President of the United States.
America, with all her warts, is the BEST ROLE MODEL THIS WORLD AS EVER SEEN.
Because he cannot even say that, because of his utmost respect to the opinions of all mankind,and mean it, as well as his utter willingness to promote global warming in ANY form, shows that he is not the person to be either the Republican nominee or the next President.
His whole trip abroad, with Lieberman and Graham at his side, is troubling. Is he conducting foreign policy? By what right? And oh, let us not forget the little fundraiser in London on Thursday. How does that fit in with CFR that McKook champions?
The evidence builds day by day of this man’s utter contempt of the conservative principles that founded and guided this country. There should be no surprise or wailing and gnashing of teeth after 1/20/09 should this charlatan become President, when his one world agenda is exposed.
The actions of the last eight years are screaming to be paid attention to. His utter disloyalty to this President, to the GOP,to conservatives, and his embrace of the Democratic agenda are all warning signals to be heeded. As we get closer to November, this will come into focus even more clearly.
That is, for those who are willing to see clearly.
Trojan horses are white? ;-)
No, I support freedom and capitalism. You must prefer the liberal fascists...Hillary or Obama.
I'm dedicated to understanding all the candidates and not just drinking koolaid that some would like to hand out. Unlike some, I like to base my opinions on fact not propaganda. Dane said Hillary did not support nuclear energy--she does.
In the future, please have the courtesy of pinging those that you are talking about.
Maybe she is working for the Hillary campaign?
Stuff it, troll.
Ollie North, Schwartzkopf, Steve Forbes, Romney and over 100 military top brass support McCain. However, IF your dem fascists...Hillary or Obama win...LOOK OUT!!!!!!
white pine?
they ran out of austrian oak. ;-)
Calcowgirl, I am no troll but you are a hatemonger when it comes to McCain. I believe from your posts you prefer Obama or Hillary.
Also, I recall you posting something you confessed you had not read? I find you to be the troll for hillary.
I have a few words for this idiot; but can’t say them on the forum.
I want defense of our country to come before some world opinion... or world government.
You seem to have overdosed on the Hillary kool aid. I have read your posts and find you have NOT researched the facts
So YOU stuff it where the sun dont shine TROLL
Uh a fact is a fact, and Reagan signed the 1967 Therapeutic Abortion Act, and just using your rhetoric against McCain, you should be damning Reagan as you are McCain.
Maybe now you may understand that such people like yourself are called "kneejerkers".
I agree especially when we the people had no hand in nominating the 3 idiots they called Presidential nominees.
How can we even begin to think of voting for people that are truly not the American peoples’ nominees?
I don’t “hate” any of the candidates—I just try to see them for what they are.
None of them will “delight” me if elected. In fact, I find them all incompetent, unqualified, and ideologically wrong.
Now, if you can’t discuss the content of the article, take a hike. You’re boring me.
Look out for what, Katie?
All three are for amnesty.With amnesty, the destruction of our society and status as a world power is assured.
All three are for cap and trade, and believe global warming is a fact. And that the US is the main culprit.
All three believe Ted Kennedy should be consulted on selections for Federal and Supreme court judges.
All three believe in limits on political speech, including yours, Constitution be damned.
All three believe we should be subordinate to the UN.
All three believe we should close down Gitmo, and bring ununifirmed combatants to American soil and give them Constitutional rights.
All three believe that waterboarding is torture, and can never be used, even if the fate of you and your family and neighbor and your entire city hang in the balance.
All three believe we should actually care about what the rest of world thinks of us, when for the last 63 years, this nation has expended trillions and trillions of dollars to fight totalitarianism, emperor worship, fascism, communism, and Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, as well as expending more money in the history of world to give disaster aid, medical care, and economic aid to less fortunate countries, as well as expending lives and treasure to free hundreds of millions of people, without any annexation of territory, confiscation of material goods, or enslavement of conquered peoples.
So, pray tell, what is it, that we must look out for?
All three believe
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