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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (74451)	7/27/2006 6:49:48 PM
From: CalculatedRisk	Respond to of 361303

Bill Clinton on Middle-east, oil depletion, global warming ... Clinton calls on western leaders to broker Lebanese ceasefire Murray Brewster, Canadian Press Published: Thursday, July 27, 2006 Article tools canada.com HALIFAX (CP) - The United States and other western countries should be pushing hard for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, along with the insertion of an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said Wednesday. The Islamic group Hezbollah's tactics are at the root of the latest bloody conflict in the region, but Clinton also questioned the length to which Israel has gone to defend itself. "It's important for us to get some kind of ceasefire now," Clinton said. "I think this idea of an international force needs to be fleshed out." His position stands in contrast to the Bush administration and Israel, which have both rejected the idea of a quick truce. As three days of inconclusive Mideast diplomacy broke up in Rome, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a ceasefire without conditions would allow Hezbollah to regroup and attack Israel or other countries anew. Clinton said Israel has been looking for an opportunity to "degrade" Hezbollah's military capacity. "The danger in this Israeli strategy is that Hezbollah attacks with rockets, then hides among civilians," he told 5,000 people at a sold-out event at the Halifax Metro Centre. "No matter how measured the response is, if you go after them, you're going to kill innocent people." Hezbollah has tried to do what Hamas has done in the Palestinian territories and said, "when it suits us we'll be a political party and when it suits us we'll go to war," Clinton told former Canadian ambassador to Washington Frank McKenna in a question-answer session following the speech. Clinton also said Israel went too far in bombing the airport in Beirut. "I understand why (Israel) wanted to degrade their military capacity, but I question whether it was worth it to wreck the airport because the airport was the symbol of the new Lebanon." NATO is probably the only international group with the military muscle capable of fielding a peacekeeping force, said Clinton. "If we're ever going to have a peaceful Middle East, then the peacemakers will have to be protected in a way that won't get them blamed every time they fight back," he said. Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, is in Canada this week to talk about bilateral relations. He's been to Canada 20 times since he left the Oval Office, mostly for speaking engagements. In his speech Wednesday, he urged Canada to stay the course on universal health care. He also focused his attention on the depletion of the world's oil reserves. Last year he sent a stern message to oil-rich Alberta about the effects of global warming. Clinton said energy-producing nations shouldn't keep their "heads in the sand" and allow the world's climate to change to the point where it could have catastrophic results.