Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Win Smith who wrote (58266)	11/22/2002 11:17:14 AM
From: FaultLine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

people addicted to bloviating punditry... did you get the last word in...? --fl

To: Win Smith who wrote (58266)	11/22/2002 12:44:30 PM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

Axworthy says Bush will lose terror war Ex-minister says U.S. reversion to 'law of the jungle' is immoral, ineffective "Attempting to beat terrorists into submission through military action cannot be effective," Mr. Axworthy states. "There are too many pre-existing tensions, which military attacks exacerbate rather than quell. Military responses feed the anger, poverty, rhetoric -- the climate of grievance -- that create and sustain terrorist intentions." Randy Boswell The Ottawa Citizen canada.com Lloyd Axworthy will deliver a blistering critique of the U.S.-led war on terrorism tonight at Carleton University, casting the with-us-or-against-us "Bush doctrine" and the unrelenting push for war with Iraq as a reversion to "the law of the jungle" on a global scale. In a speech titled Canadian Foreign Policy: Choices and Consequences, the former foreign affairs minister bluntly predicts the failure of the military campaign against al-Qaeda fanatics and warns that "counter-terrorism is the new crusade" that effectively gives the United States "the right to be judge, jury and prosecutor against any country, or anyone it considers a threat, running contrary to half a century of international law and the Charter of the United Nations." Mr. Axworthy, who left the federal Liberal cabinet two years ago to become the director of the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, has repeatedly voiced concerns about U.S. unilateralism since the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes on the U.S. He has urged the Canadian government to chart a wholly independent course in its response to the attacks. But he is clearly ratcheting up his rhetoric with tonight's speech, a draft of which was provided to the Citizen. "Attempting to beat terrorists into submission through military action cannot be effective," Mr. Axworthy states. "There are too many pre-existing tensions, which military attacks exacerbate rather than quell. Military responses feed the anger, poverty, rhetoric -- the climate of grievance -- that create and sustain terrorist intentions." And he depicts Canada as facing a historic choice between junior partnership in an emerging American empire or committing itself more resolutely to the multilateral agencies and structures that offer a counterweight -- based on international law and treaties -- to tyranny and terrorism but also to U.S. political, economic and military might. "I'm fully aware of the power of our partner on the North American continent to be a force for good. "But I also come with a sense of apprehension about the present mood and dominant politics of that country. It sees itself as a power without peers, and therefore subject to few, if any, restraints or rules to its actions." In an interview last night, Mr. Axworthy said he wants tonight's speech -- Carleton's annual Dick and Ruth Bell Lecture -- to help "counter the sense of the inevitable," the seemingly unstoppable momentum toward war in Iraq and toward unchecked U.S. dominance of world affairs. He stressed that Mr. Bush's is merely "a specific administration" whose actions should not be allowed to "undermine" the International Criminal Court and other multilateral bodies that Canada has played a key role in developing. Mr. Axworthy argues, in fact, that bringing charges against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein under the ICC could be part of an alternative to war. It's a move, he says, that could begin to seriously shake the dictator's support within Iraq and -- along with sustained pressure from the UN and other international bodies -- help bring about his downfall, by means other than a war with potentially explosive consequences for the Middle East. He adds that terrorism needs to be defined as a crime under international law with a multinational "constabulary" of police forces and tribunals established to bring perpetrators to justice. As proof of the futility of an all-out military assault on terrorism, Mr. Axworthy says, "just listen to the tapes" released last week, which showed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had survived the war in Afghanistan. "It's a matter of what works," he says.