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

To: kumar who wrote (61647)	12/14/2002 4:31:53 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>>So, are you saying Rumsfeld signing a piece of paper with Qatar is worth less than my toilet paper ?<< No, but I really think either I explained this or the articles I linked did. Maybe I should explain that when I am making an argument and put in a citation, I really expect the reader to actually click the link and read what I cited. I can't think of a more famouse or significant instance where a President made a treaty he couldn't get ratified than Woodrow Wilson and the Fourteen Points he outlined as a framework for the end of WWI. The Germans never understood why Wilson couldn't deliver what they believed him to have promised them, never forgave the US, and this was one of the reasons for WWII. One of the articles I linked stated that in 1999 there were around 80 treaties the US President had signed but not ratified, at least one going back to World War I. Under US law, an unratified treaty is not a treaty, it's called an executive agreement. Another of the articles I linked stated that it is common for Presidents to pretend that signing a treaty binds the US, because it is politically expedient for him to do so. This works fairly well as long as the President remains in office, and continues to work as long as succeeding Presidents don't want to rock the boat. Apparently these issues don't get much attention unless a succeeding President feels like rocking the boat. Rumsfeld's agreement with Qatar is binding to the extent that the President can bind the US in his capacity as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, maybe more due to previous treaties already ratified, but I am not going to take the time to look up all treaties the US already has with Qatar.