Weak Words, Weak Action
July 31st, 2006Either President Bush has recognized his own inability to achieve anything, or he’s attempting to pander to “internationalists” in this election year, because there is no other explanation for this latest comments about Israel.
President Bush insisted anew Monday that any Mideast cease-fire be conditioned on a wider agreement and said he would look to the United Nations to act to establish “a long-lasting peace, one that is sustainable.” As Israel cut short a halt in bombing and launched new strikes in southern Lebanon, Bush spelled out a series of what he called “clear objectives” to accompany a halt in the fighting. “Iran must end its financial support and supply of weapons to terrorist groups like Hezbollah. Syria must end its support for terror and respect the sovereignty of Lebanon,” Bush said in a speech at the Port of Miami.
The UN should work to establish a long-lasting peace? Heaven help us all — it was the UN’s bumbling that forced other countries to create Israel in the first place! I’m no critic of Israel’s existence, but without the UN’s incompetence in dealing with the land turned over to them by the British, these problems might’ve never happened. Of course, the same can be said for French, English and American involvement in the area, but these countries, at least, have some track record of success. George Bush counting on the UN to bring some sort of peace to the Middle East is like a Fiscal Conservative relying on the Republicans to balance the budget. The President’s job is the President’s job, and he shouldn’t be pawning off Leader of the Free World to Kofi Annan, for all of our sakes!
Bush, in addition, has gotten his UN resolution for the Iranians.
The U.N. Security Council passed a weakened resolution Monday giving Iran until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions. Iran immediately rejected the council action, saying it would only make negotiations more difficult concerning a package of incentives offered in June for it to suspend enrichment. “All along it has been the persistence of some to draw arbitrary red lines and deadlines that has closed the door to any compromise,” said Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Javad Zarif.
“This tendency has single-handedly blocked success and in most cases killed proposals in their infancy. “This approach will not lead to any productive outcome and in fact it can only exacerbate the situation.” Because of Russian and Chinese demands, the text was watered down from earlier drafts, which would have made the threat of sanctions immediate. The draft now essentially requires the council to hold more discussions before it considers sanctions.
This is, obviously, weak even by UN standards, and the Iranian response is the predictable one. Nobody expected the Iranians to say, post-resolution, “Well, the West is serious!” After they continue to stonewall, we will see where the resolutions post-resolution and post-deadline go, and from there we’ll know just which way the Iranians blow. Right now, things aren’t looking particularly good. Worse still for the President, as far as recent developments, he is facing staunch resistance to his “Signing Statements” from the ABA. Let me just say — I think it is so dishonest to attach signing statements to bills saying, “I intend to violate this law if a or b occur.” Veto the damned bill if you must, but don’t play the role of King.
Finally, I’d like to refer everyone here. The world’s refusal to take Global Warming seriously — even by those who pretend that they do — is a disgrace.