A socialist is a socialist is a socialist is a socialist is a socialist is a socialist
Posted on 02/02/2002 4:53:58 AM PST by sarcasm
NEW YORK -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that the United States and its allies must battle global poverty as part of the war against terrorism, saying that those seduced by terrorists must be shown "there is a better way."
"We have to go after poverty," Powell said. "We have to go after despair. We have to go after hopelessness."
He spoke to a session of the World Economic Forum, which has brought 2,500 corporate, religious, and political leaders to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.
There were few demonstrations on the streets surrounding the hotel, but the forum's Web site crashed yesterday morning, and three groups of cyberactivists claimed responsibility. They called themselves Electronic Civil Disobedience, Electronic Disturbance Theater and the Federation of Random Action.
Charles McLean, a forum spokesman, said technicians were struggling yesterday to restore the site, which carries the forum's press releases and other information at www.weforum.org.
McLean said organizers were still trying late last night to determine what brought the site down.
Questions of poverty, terrorism and security dominated the second day of the gathering, moved to New York from its customary Alpine home in Davos, Switzerland, to show solidarity with the city after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Discussions were impassioned, but participants did not always see eye to eye.
Powell said that the war on terrorism should focus on countries that produce weapons of mass destruction, arguing that they might provide them to terrorists. "We can't just stop at a single terrorist organization; we have to go through the whole system."
While Powell emphasized the need for a long-term military commitment, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, president of the Philippines, said she believed that the military fight was nearly over and that it should be replaced by a battle against "the handmaiden of terrorism, poverty."
"The rest (of the military campaign) will be mopping up," Arroyo said. "The coalition should stay on and fight against poverty."
About 4,000 police officers were stationed near the hotel to ward off a repeat of violent protests at financial summits in Seattle and Genoa.
But police spent more time trying to stay dry in the cold drizzle than they did arresting protesters. After arresting eight Thursday, police had made no arrests related to the forum by yesterday afternoon.
"It's all hype," one police officer patrolling the area around the hotel said. "Nothing's going to happen."
But protest leaders said they expect thousands to march in a festive noontime parade today, starting at the southern tip of Central Park and moving past the Waldorf.
Powell, speaking at a panel on building a coalition for a stable world, said the United States is just beginning its campaign against terrorism and will "make sure we root it out, wherever it exists."
But America will also help countries solve problems that make them hotbeds for terrorism, Powell added. He cited Afghanistan, where he said the United States will continue humanitarian efforts to rebuild the shattered country.
In afternoon sessions, other leaders sparred over questions of national security and civil rights raised by the response to the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We are in a conflict that is different than just about any conflict we have been in," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hatch also voiced his support for U.S. plans to convene military tribunals to try accused terrorists.
But Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International, sharply disagreed on the tribunals.
"There is no need to create a political shadow system to deal with these threats," she said. Treating those accused of terrorist crimes differently from other citizens, she said, sends the message to repressive regimes that it is permissible to deny civil rights.
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who with Powell, was one of the top two U.S. officials at the five-day conference, said that helping countries overcome their troubles isn't always easy.
"Over the last 50 years, hundreds of billions have been spent in the name of economic development, with so many of the countries that have been major recipients still not showing strong evidence of positive change," he said.
O'Neill added that research is needed "to understand where our efforts have given great results and, maybe more importantly, where there are no results or regression."
Later, Homeland security director Tom Ridge said America and its allies have learned much about how terrorists operate but must learn "to think in terms of unthinkable events."
"We will always have to be prepared, we will always have to be in the business of looking for threats and vulnerabilities," Ridge said.
Several participants said the United States and other wealthy countries need to stop showing indifference to the frustrations of developing nations.
People in poor nations "do not feel that this sort of international order is really helping them," said Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League. "We know that two-thirds of the world's population are poor and hungry, two-thirds are really angry, and we don't have to ask why."
More than 2,700 participants from 106 countries are attending the meeting, including 30 heads of state, 100 Cabinet ministers and 74 ambassadors. Participants include King Abdullah II of Jordan; Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations; Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates; and Bono, the lead singer for the rock group U2.
That, and a traditional aversion to hard work. Most educated young Arabs want and expect cushy govvie jobs, and go radical when none are available. Look at Japan! No resources, a ruined country, and it didn't take much help from the US to help them become nearly a superpower. We didn't beggar ourselves to help the Japanese after we defeated them--and it sure helped that they had a work ethic...without that work ethic, we'll just pour money down a corrupt hole.
Really.
They had not been told in advance of the "axis of evil" phrase, which Mr Bush inserted.
It seems Mr Powell doesn't see who the 'order issuer' is.......
NOT ! This is not what the old General has in mind. The basic freedoms including property rights are what caused the United States to grow into an economic superpower in a few short centuries. Nations which do not have these freedoms have been quagmired in totalalian poverty status for thousands of years. e.g. African and Middle East Nations.
No one in the U.S. worries about Japan or Germany becoming a military threat much anymore. This is the model. Communism and totalitarism find fertile ground where ever governments establish artificially prolonged poverty.
Stop. Its not nice to tease...JFK
He did. Nothing that happens in the SOTU by accident. Powell was informed of everything. Bush doesn't work that way; we're not led by the Toon anymore. He and Powell have an agreement. Surprise, people, they do trust each other.
This "Powell is out of the loop" crap is something that we are being spoon-fed. Intentionally, I might add.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
Frankly terrorism is a problem of poverty of values rather than poverty of money.
Powell is beginning to sound like an affirmative action appointment. Either he is really stupid or he is really stupid. Whatever it is, he's not up to the job.
This should be interesting. If Powell is out of the loop, I imagine we will find out in due time.
Gotta run.......see you later.
Yes, and THEN we can think about poverty; rather, what we CAN think about is how to make the governments in these crappy countries spend THEIR money on THEIR citizens, rather than themselves.
g
Mr Powell was the one appointment I was not comfortable with, and it seems my concern was justified. I know the above statement isn't Powell, but it shows the idiocy of his comments (and other liberals) quite well.
Alot of money has been spend domestically to eliminate poverty, with the same results. In fact in both cases the recipients distrusts the givers. Poverty has not been eliminated or even reduced domestically or internationally. The gifts have done nothing more than keep those who have been poor in chronic poverty. Before the concept of income and wealth transfers became popular poverty was a transitory situation. This is no longer the case. These transfers on an individual level (nationally) destroy the need to work and extracate ones-self from poverty. Internationally they serve to prop up regemes that oppress their people economically as well as other ways. Without international aid, many of these repressive regemes may have fallen, allowing regemes that allow their people some freedom to move in.
The proof that this is a failed concept is that we have been doing it for 50 years without any positive results!
It is sad that this man is in his position. Every other appointment that President Bush made has been the perfect man (or woman) for the job. How did he blow it so badly in this case?
MARK A SITY
http://www.logic101.net/
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