Was The Bush administration forced into the Middle East Conflict

csn | 8-30-01

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Powell Praised For Skipping U.N. Racism Conference By Jim Burns CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer August 30, 2001

(CNSNews.com) - One of England's biggest newspapers Thursday praised U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell for his "considerable courage" in deciding against attending the United Nations conference on racism that is set to begin in Durban, South Africa on Friday.

The Daily Telegraph, in an editorial, emphasized the pressures on Powell to attend were "enormous," and the paper cited United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Rev. Jesse Jackson and the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus as among those putting the pressure on.

"The Secretary of State could see that the Durban colloquium was like all such Orwellian gatherings," commented the newspaper. "Although it is supposed to be all about fighting hate, it has degenerated into little more than a vehicle for furthering other forms of hatred, namely of the West and Israel."

The paper also emphasized that it isn't the first time that the United States decided to boycott the conference.

"Both the Carter and Reagan administrations declined to participate in similar U.N. conferences in 1978 and 1983 for much the same reasons as General Powell: high-level attendance would only have conferred illegitimacy without fundamentally changing things," the editorial said.

But another London newspaper, the Independent, said Powell's absence is a "missed opportunity."

"President Bush's decision not to send his Secretary of State Colin Powell is a missed opportunity of the first order. It diverts attention from the central purpose of the already troubled meeting - combating racism worldwide. With Mr. Powell in attendance, the United States would have been in a unique position to burnish its anti-racist credentials," the paper's editorial said.

The Johannesburg, South Africa newspaper Business Day also praised Powell in an editorial, arguing that the absence of high-ranking U.S. officials "might get across the point that this is a foolish venture."

"Sending somebody like the third undersecretary for cultural affairs at the U.S. embassy in Pretoria as an observer would signal the real importance of this conclave," the Business Day editorial said.

While Powell received praise in some media outlets, and questions from others, both he and President Bush found themselves under attack from Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, for avoiding the conference, which is supported by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

"Bush has stated that he will not attend because those present are going to upset Israel by accusing its government of being racist," noted Granma. "With this attitude, the U.S. president is once more demonstrating his complacency at the genocide being committed on a daily basis by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian people."

Granma also raised the question of "Why should Bush and Powell attend a world conference that is to precisely condemn the politics of the government they represent."

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I was looking for this Article shortly after the attack on 9-11.
I remembered reading it and all I could remember was that J.Jackson was taunting the bush administration for not attending!

Turns out the Administration read between the lines and saw it as a coalition against Israel. What was surprising is what took place Twelve days later!

Looks like we had to get involved one way or the other!!