Posted on 05/31/2003 7:00:24 AM PDT by Mark Felton
KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) - President Bush urged Europe on Saturday to move beyond arguments over the Iraq war and unite against terrorism, telling his critics it was "no time to stir up divisions" in the Atlantic alliance.
"By waging this fight together we will speed the day of final victory," Bush said on the first stop of a week-long, six-nation trip that will bring him face-to-face with leading opponents of the war in Europe and on to the Middle East.
He evoked Nazi Germany's 1939 invasion of Poland to illustrate his case for pre-emptive strikes on "outlaw states" and terrorists. He spoke at Krakow's Wawel Castle, seat of medieval Polish kings, after visiting the Auschwitz death camp.
"Today our alliance of freedom faces a new enemy, a lethal combination of terrorist groups, outlaw states seeking weapons of mass destruction, an ideology of power and domination that targets the innocent and justifies any crime.
"This is the time for all of us to unite in the defense of liberty. This is no time to stir up divisions in a great alliance," he said. Nonetheless, he took time to chide Europe for its hostility to American genetically modified foodstuffs.
Bush was starting his first foreign tour since a war that strained relations with key allies like France, Germany and Russia. It remains a sore topic as U.S. troops struggle to keep order in Iraq and Washington and its British allies deny they manipulated evidence of banned weapons to make the case for war.
Bush acknowledged relations had been tested, as he prepared to meet the main war opponents at summits in Russia and France.
"America and European countries have been called to confront the threat of global terror. Each nation has faced difficult decisions about the use of military force to keep the peace. We have seen unity and common purpose. We've also seen debate, some of it helpful, some of it divisive," he said.
PRAISE FOR POPE
Offering an olive branch, he added: "I have come to Krakow to state the intentions of my country. The United States is committed to a strong Atlantic alliance to ensure our security, to advance human freedom and to keep peace in the world."
In a specific reaching out to the Roman Catholic Church, Bush heaped praise on Krakow's favorite son, Pope John Paul, who joined many European leaders in criticizing the Iraq war.
Bush later flew to St Petersburg to meet dozens of world leaders including Iraq war opponents Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. They will all attend a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) big powers in Evian, France from Sunday.
Bush used the nearby Auschwitz and Birkenau camps to make his case against terrorism. Pausing before the brick ruins of a crematorium, Bush said Hitler's gas chambers were a "reminder of the power of evil and the need for people to resist evil."
In his Krakow speech, Bush compared September 11 attacks to the Nazi invasion of Poland and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, saying it bolstered his case that sometimes pre-emptive action was needed -- an idea that makes many in Europe uneasy.
"Aggression and evil intent must not be ignored or appeased. They must be opposed early and decisively," he said.
He also urged fellow members of the G8 -- France, Russia, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan and Britain -- to follow through on financial commitments to help secure and eliminate deadly weapons that remain in the former Soviet bloc from the Cold War.
He said the United States and a number of close allies, including Poland, were working on new agreements to search planes and ships carrying suspect cargo and to seize illegal weapons or missile technologies in order to "keep the world's most destructive weapons out of the hands of al Qaeda enemies."
In a reminder transatlantic harmony faces more challenges than just Iraq, however, Bush urged Europe to stop undercutting U.S. efforts to feed starving Africans by blocking use of genetically modified crops, which he says could dramatically improve prosperity. Many Europeans fear GM foods may be unsafe. Bush Tells Europe It Time to Move on from Iraq Row
"[Montesquieu wrote in his Spirit of Laws, X,c.2:] 'The right of natural defense carries along with it sometimes the necessity of attacking; as, for instance, when one nation sees that a continuance of peace will enable another to destroy her, and that to attack that nation instantly is the only way to prevent her own destruction.'" --Thomas Jefferson: copied into his Commonplace Book.
What rot! If anything, these are examples of countries which used preemptive attacks in the past.
If we look for examples of a militarily powerful nation manufacturing a casus belli and overpowering a much weaker nation with great speed we can find the Nazi attack on the Czechs or the US attack on Iraq.
Ok, you may be right, pharaoh.
Perhaps in both cases, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany saw the survival of their countries/empires as dependent on first attacks.
But that does not automatically translate to the conclusion that the US attack on Iraq was as unjust as Pearl Harbor or the "first" Blitzkrieg.
The distinction to be made is that Bush claims, (I think rightly so,) that the country being defended by the first strike (US) is still (barely) a just and moral nation.
If anything, THAT is the point we'd have to argue.
One of the (if not the) most profound Presidentual statements in our time!
YES. YES!!! Down with the judicial filibuster!
Reagans Berlin statement may be more profound for its consequence. Other profound Presidential Statements do not quite match up to this latest Bush one, though.
"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" -- President Ronald Reagan"Read my lips, No New Taxes" - President George Bush
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky" -- President Bill Clinton
Your right! Of course EVERYTHING Ronald Reagan did or said was profound!
I overlooked the obvious by not seeing the forest for the tree's!
"Read my lips, No New Taxes" - President George Bush
Right again, however it was profoundly stupid!
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky" -- President Bill Clinton
Ah yeeeesss, again you are right!! Profoundly deceitful, dishonest, self centered, uncaring, wreckless, AND stupid!
If I were a "Carny" you would walk away making your girlfriend very pleased with all the prizes you have won for her!! :)
What's a speach?
And I thought I had a grasp of the English language! :)
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