Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal asserted on Tuesday that the government made a secret agreement with the U.S....Baykal said that setting up new bases in Mardin and Gaziantep ... "is not an issue which will be decided by the government on its own because base means accepting a regulation that foresees deployment of 'soldiers.' Our Constitution is very clear. The parliament gives decision about deployment of foreign soldiers in Turkey and sending of Turkish soldiers abroad. Thus, we can't accept the government's giving a decision about formation of a base in Mardin."...
Baykal said that the parliament didn't approve deployment of foreign soldiers in Turkey and their launching an operation to another country from these territories....
Despite that, the activities ... were speeded up, Baykal commented, adding "Turkey is not a 'Banana Republic.'"
MORE: Yakis: No Official Request (Turkish Press, 3/12/2003)
Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said on Wednesday that ... "we have not received an official request of the United States to use our air space yet."...Responding another question, Yakis said, "when we receive such an official request, we will assess whether or not it requires decision of the parliament."
The Saudi Arabian opposition in London says there has been a major influx of US warplanes into Saudi airbases close to the Iraqi border.It says that large numbers of US planes have been arriving at the airbases of Tabuk and 'Arar, and that Saudi troops there had moved out to make room for them....
But a spokesman for the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia said the US shows every appearance of mounting a new front in its expected conflict with Iraq....
He said sources inside the Saudi military had revealed that Saudi forces were being moved out of the airbases to make room for the US air force and American ground troops.
The discomfort of Labour MPs was plain on their faces in the Commons yesterday, but after wobbly Tuesday in Downing Street moral certitude has returned to the frontbenches.At prime minister's questions, Tony Blair gave the impression that his great decision has been made. There will be war, with or without the support of the UN security council. Even if a majority of security council members fail to endorse a second resolution, British troops will go into military action alongside the US. Moreover, Mr Blair declared - after weeks of speculation about the legality of conflict - that "we would not do anything that would not have a proper legal basis to it". He presumably would not risk such a view unless he felt sure he was supported by the attorney general, his good friend Lord Goldsmith.
This certainty contrasted markedly from Tuesday, when it appears the lines of communication between the White House and Downing Street became extremely fragile.
Rightly or wrongly, the White House was becoming increasingly anxious that Mr Blair's diplomats at the UN were going an extra mile too far in search of support from the swing six states. Calls between the Foreign Office and the state department, and to a lesser extent, between British and US diplomats at the UN, became difficult.
Mr Bush has always been aware of the political shelter a second UN resolution would provide Mr Blair in his battle with Labour and British opinion. But Washington feared Mr Blair was starting to stray over some of America's diplomatic red lines.
It has been an article of political faith for Mr Blair and Mr Bush to keep their tactical differences to a minimum in public. But the swing six states, struggling to make a choice between the US and France, started to discern Britain was willing to go much further than the US in search of a compromise and their support. [...]
Mr Rumsfeld spoke after one of his regular phone conversations with his British counterpart, Geoff Hoon. The American, under the impression that Britain might have to hold its troops back, must have been reflecting the despondent tone emerging from London.
The effect was confusion in political, diplomatic and military circles, and a midnight call between Mr Bush and Mr Blair to clarify their position.
It was the culmination of a bad few days for Downing Street. But by this morning the wobble was over. Overnight Mr Blair faced down the difficulties mounting on many sides and emerged more resolute than ever.
The rebels at yesterday's Labour's parliamentary party meeting were seen off after overplaying their hand. Mr Blair told MPs at question time that British troops would fight alongside the US.
The United States appeared to be moving closer on Wednesday to a U.N. Security Council majority for a resolution authorizing war against Iraq, as Britain proposed confronting President Saddam Hussein with a set of tough new demands to avoid a military onslaught.A senior U.S. official said the United States had positive responses from three African members of the Security Council -- Angola, Cameroon and Guinea -- which had previously been uncommitted. "We're assured by what we heard from them," said the official, who asked not to be named.
If confirmed, that would bring support for the war resolution in the 15-member Security Council up to seven, two short of the nine votes needed for passage. A veto from France, Russia or China, all of which are on record as opposing the resolution, would still kill it. [...]
Apart from the African trio, the other uncommitted Security Council nations were Mexico, Pakistan and Chile. Definitely in favor of the resolution were the United States, Britain, Spain and Bulgaria. Against were Russia, China, France, Germany and Syria.
In another sign of the intense diplomatic pressure Washington was bringing to bear, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Alexander Vershbow, warned Moscow to think twice and "carefully weigh all the consequences," before using its U.N. veto.
U.S. officials said there was still a chance Russia and China would abstain, but France was seen as a definite 'no' vote. However, that outcome would allow Washington to argue that it had international legitimacy and that France was the country defying the world community.
France, China and Syria all have a common reason for keeping American and British troops out of Iraq: the three nations may not want the world to discover that their nationals have been illicitly supplying Saddam Hussein with materials used in building long-range surface-to-surface missiles.We are not talking about the short-range Al Samoud 2, which Saddam is ostentatiously destroying to help his protectors avert an invasion, nor his old mobile Scuds. The delivery system for mass destruction warheads requires a much more sophisticated propulsion system and fuels.
If you were running the Iraqi ballistic missiles project, where in the world would you go to buy the chemical that is among the best binders for solid propellant?
Answer: to 116 DaWu Road in Zibo, a city in the Shandong Province of China, where a company named Qilu Chemicals is a leading producer of a transparent liquid rubber named hydroxy terminated polybutadiene, familiarly known in the advanced-rocket trade as HTPB.
But you wouldn't want the word "chemicals" to appear anywhere on the purchase because that might alert inspectors enforcing sanctions, so you employ a couple of cutouts. One is an import-export company with which Qilu Chemicals often does business.
To be twice removed from the source, you would turn to CIS Paris, a Parisian broker that is active in dealings of many kinds with Baghdad. Its director is familiar with the order but denies being the agent.
A shipment of 20 tons of HTPB, whose sale to Iraq is forbidden by U.N. resolutions and the oil-for-food agreement, left China in August 2002 in a 40-foot container. It arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus (fortified by the Knights Templar in 1183, and the Mediterranean terminus for an Iraqi oil pipeline today) and was received there by a trading company that was an intermediary for the Iraqi missile industry, the end user. The HTPB was then trucked across Syria to Iraq. [...]
The French connection - brokering the deal among the Chinese producer, the Syrian land transporter and the Iraqi buyer - is no great secret to the world's arms merchants. French intelligence has long been aware of it. The requirement for a French export license as well as U.N. sanctions approval may have been averted by disguising it as a direct offshore sale from China to Syria.
MORE:
Report: U.S. one vote away from Security Council majority on Iraq (Ha'aretz, 3/13/03)
The Bush administration believes that it is one vote shy of having nine of 15 votes needed on a UN Security Council resolution giving Iraq an ultimatum to disarm, CNN quoted two senior U.S. State Department officials as saying Wednesday.These officials said the administration will focus its diplomatic energies on Mexico and Chile to secure their backing, and that the U.S. is confident it has the support of the three African members of the Security Council - Cameroon, Guinea and Angola - despite a visit this week by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin to lobby for support opposing the resolution.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "I wouldn't deny that we are making progress but I don't want to mislead you into thinking that we've got it in the bag."
"We stay fixated on the rule that you don't count your chickens until the cows come home," he told a briefing. Boucher was referring to Angola, Cameroon and Guinea, as well as the other undecided members -- Chile, Mexico and Pakistan.
It's been a good if busy season for the Weekly Standard and its aggressive version of American greatness. A change of administrations and 9/11 have made the tiny journal, the prime voice of Republican neoconservatives, one of the most influential publications in Washington.The circulation of The Weekly Standard, which was founded by the News Corporation in 1995, is only 55,000. The Nation, a liberal beacon, has 127,000, The New Republic has 85,000, and National Review, long a maypole for conservatives, counts 154,000 readers. But the numbers are misleading in a digital age in which thought and opinion are frequently untethered from print and reiterated thousands of times on Web sites, list servers and e-mail in-boxes.
"Reader for reader, it may be the most influential publication in America," said Eric Alterman, a columnist for The Nation and author of "What Liberal Media?" (Basic Books). The circulation may be small, but "they are not interested in speaking to the great unwashed," Mr. Alterman said. "The magazine speaks directly to and for power. Anybody who wants to know what this administration is thinking and what they plan to do has to read this magazine."
A few weeks ago President Bush attended the annual dinner of the American Enterprise Institute to compliment Irving Kristol. Now 83, he is the forebear of the neoconservative movement that his son, William, The Weekly Standard's editor, now champions.
The younger Mr. Kristol, 50, was happy that President Bush graciously acknowledged his father, but he was even more pleased by the text of his speech, which seemed lifted from The Weekly Standard's hymnal. [...]
Mr. Kristol has spent 18 years in Washington. He served as chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle and has done occasional stints as a pariah of both the right and left. He acknowledged that the staff he helped assemble seven years ago has made a quick trip from rock-throwing revolutionaries to an amen corner for the administration.
The outburst by the US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the US might go to war without the UK reflects the tension between Washington and London about whether further diplomacy is a waste of time.It helps to explain why there is such a rush at the United Nations to try to get a follow-up and final resolution which will say that Iraq has a certain time in which to comply.
Britain is trying to head off both American impatience and domestic dissent. [...]
As for Mr Rumsfeld, he is famous for speaking his mind and he has done so again.
US and UK interests have diverged because Mr Blair needs to go to the UN Security Council and Mr Bush does not
He and others like him in the administration, who never wanted to go the United Nations at all, are now impatient at the complicated efforts to get another resolution.
They basically want to clear the decks and start the action.
Mr Rumsfeld managed in passing to dismiss the whole British military effort with his remark that there would be "workarounds", a statement of fact given that the US does not need the British there militarily.
But such candour is not helpful to Mr Blair who has invested so much in sending a third of his armed forces to the Gulf.
The world's first brain prosthesis - an artificial hippocampus - is about to be tested in California. Unlike devices like cochlear implants, which merely stimulate brain activity, this silicon chip implant will perform the same processes as the damaged part of the brain it is replacing.First, this is cool. Second, it is somewhat comforting to those of us who believe that there is more to man than flesh and blood that the best that could be done is mimic the brain, without understanding it.The prosthesis will first be tested on tissue from rats' brains, and then on live animals. If all goes well, it will then be tested as a way to help people who have suffered brain damage due to stroke, epilepsy or Alzheimer's disease.
MILLIONS of women and children need urgent help to survive in North Korea despite signs of an improving humanitarian situation, UNICEF's Asia-Pacific Regional Director Mher Khan warned yesterday.UNICEF's plea comes despite a substantial improvement in conditions following a famine in the late 1990s that aid specialists estimate killed about two million people.
"We are in a critical situation in terms of essential support," Mr Khan said. "Medicines, vaccines, food are desperately needed.
"Without these basic supplies we could see malnutrition rates go up in the next few months.
"We believe there are millions of vulnerable women and children who continue to need external assistance in order to survive."
I've had a chance over the last couple of days to talk to some foreign investors and let me tell you something: They're not big fans of ours, or me, for that matter.Perhaps it was that wine that I ordered with the twist-off cap. I don't know. But this much I do know: These guys over there don't think much of us guys over here.
They think we're arrogant, pushy and even reckless.
First of all, someone French calling me arrogant is pretty gutsy. But that's another issue.
No, my issue is why we put up with this crap in the first place. I'll tell you why: Because we're decent people. I'm a nice guy and all, but here's what I say: Stop being decent.
[T]he next time the South Koreans throw rocks and eggs at our U.S. guys there, I say, we bring them back home here and tell these ungrateful asses: You deal with the kook in pajamas north of you, collecting nuclear weapons.
N.B.--Joe informs us Mr. Murdoch was naturalized several years ago.
Families of Palestinians killed by Israel received $245,000 in checks from Saddam Hussein on Wednesday, underscoring the Iraqi leader's continued support for a Palestinian revolt as he faces the prospect of a U.S.-led war.Leaders of a pro-Iraq Palestinian group handed out the checks after delivering fiery speeches extolling the Iraqi president's virtues to hundreds of relatives of "martyrs" packed into a dingy YMCA hall in Gaza City.
Officials of the Palestinian Arab Liberation Front staging the ceremony said Saddam had now paid $35 million to support the kin of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since militants rose up against Israel there 29 months ago.
"Saddam Hussein considers those who die in martyrdom attacks as people who have won the highest degree of martyrdom," an official of the Arab Liberation Front said.
"It's the woman professor who haunts me most. A prisoner under Saddam, she gave birth to a girl, but couldn't feed her because the thin soup wasn't enough to provide breast milk," Ann Clwyd tells me. "When she begged the guards for milk, they beat her. She held that dead baby for three days, refusing to give it up. The temperature in the cell was stifling, the smell was horrendous, but none of the other prisoners complained. In the end, they took her away and killed her."When Mrs Clwyd stood up in the House of Commons last week to talk about the plight of the Iraqis and Kurds, MPs fell silent....
Former prisoners showed her around [the new Kurdish genocide museum]. On the walls were hundreds of photographs of piles of clothing, mass graves and skulls. "Saddam's regime is like the Khmer Rouge and the Nazis; they are obsessed by documenting everything they've done. There are lots of photographs of prisoners just before they were executed, grinning at the cameras. The guards tickled them before they died to make them laugh."
The day she opened the museum it was snowing, grey and icy. "Hundreds of relatives of the dead and the victims queued up to watch and to tell me their stories. An old Kurdish woman shoved a piece of plastic at me; inside were two photographs of her husband and two missing sons. She wanted to know how they died. One old man showed me a photograph of 15 of his family. He was the only survivor. 'Why was I meant to survive?' he said....
"I burst into tears. As I stood in that museum, I just thought: 'Why didn't we carry on to Baghdad? Why did we let this keep happening for another 12 years?'"
My view is that the op-ed column length is the work of the Devil. It is too long to make one simple important point--so an op-ed column has to at least pretend to take a comprehensive view. But it is too short to really take a comprehensive view of anything....Memo to Howell Raines: Give Paul Krugman 2000 words once a week (or once every week and a half) rather than 700 words twice a week.
I must say, however, I do like the Krugman-once-a-week suggestion.
War in Iraq would disrupt food supplies to the millions of Iraqis who depend on government-provided rations to survive, and an extended conflict could displace hundreds of thousands of people - or more. Diane talks with representatives from some of the many relief organizations preparing to cope with a possible refugee crisis in and around Iraq. With: Kenneth Bacon, president, Refugees International, and Bob Laprade, director of Emergencies and Crisis, Save The Children
Having done their best to block America's plans to wage war on Iraq, French leaders are assessing the cost of angering their mighty ally, and are coming up with a surprising figure: virtually nothing....That may prove a costly error.... "Even though France has been a friend of ours for many years, will be a friend in the future, I think [a French veto] will have a serious effect on bilateral relations, at least in the short term," said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in a television interview Sunday....
Far from expecting a bill for the veto, some in Paris think the stance may pay dividends on the diplomatic front, by enhancing France's influence in the Middle East and Africa. Mr. Chirac made a triumphal visit to Algeria last week, where he was cheered by crowds, and the Algerian president urged the French leader be put forward for a Nobel Peace Prize....
France could find its veto hits on the diplomatic front. "It is hard to speculate what form it will take, and it will probably not be economic, but there is sure to be some serious scar tissue after all of this," a U.S. official said.
Wesley Clark needs you to know something and it can't wait."I want to make this very clear," he says. "Some of the information that's out on me says I come from a long line of rabbis." But now he says he's not certain about his lineage. He acknowledges, "I may be incorrect."
As a general rule, interviews don't start this way.... You haven't asked Clark anything, barely said a word beyond small talk, and suddenly the telegenic retired general with an Arkansas drawl is setting the record straight about his peeps back in Minsk....
Could this man become a candidate for president?
"I haven't speculated on the future."...
Why does his name keep coming up?
"Because people are looking for leadership. A lot of people are talking to me."...
In January, Clark ate lunch with Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe. But this was just a coincidence, Clark says. He had planned to have lunch with someone else, a mutual friend who Clark says invited McAuliffe along.
The Democratic chairman is amused by this characterization. In fact, a DNC spokesman says, the lunch was Clark's idea.
It is true that there is more than one "truth" to be discerned in any historical account, and there are always shades of grey. But there should be no misunderstanding of what Keith Windschuttle in his recent writings has been saying. He is not just contesting interpretations of what happened to Aborigines in the past, but is pointing to something much more serious, the deliberate falsification of our history.His latest book, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History (Macleay Press), is about just that. It is in fact only the first volume of a projected three volume work, and deals with early Tasmanian history only. The volumes to come will deal with Eastern Australia, the Northern Territory and West Australia. Why did he choose such an apparently narrow initial approach? In fact in articles published in Quadrant and elsewhere he has covered a wider canvas. But Tasmania is the place where some historians have made the reputations which back up the work they have done subsequently, and it is of Tasmania that genocide, complete or perhaps only nearly complete, is most frequently alleged. (The original allegations of genocide, the disappearance of the Aboriginal Tasmanians, were revised when the need to find some basis for land rights claims emerged. It remains doubtful whether the tenuous connections of present day claimants with the original Tasmanians are sufficient basis. The shakiness of these claims is only underlined by the bitter opposition to DNA testing of those claiming to be of Aboriginal descent.)
There is no disagreement that Aborigines suffered sorely as a result of white settlement especially from diseases to which they had no immunity, and from the disruption of their traditional lives and customs. All Australians owe them a debt which can never be fully repaid. But Windschuttle's thesis is not that nothing bad happened, but that so much historians have claimed to have happened, by way of massacres and murders of Aborigines, simply did not happen. There were indeed some massacres. But why fabricate the evidence?
And this is what Windschuttle proves has happened, over and over again. Typically one of the historians whom he criticises will write a passage describing the horrors of a particular occasion at a particular place and time, and as a good academic will provide footnotes pointing to the places where evidence of this can be found. But what if the footnotes lead nowhere, and the sources cited do not even mention an alleged incident, and no other evidence of any kind is available? In these cases it is pretty clear that the historians are not writing history but fiction.
They pretend it is history, and many honest people believe them, so they have had enormous influence on our attitudes to our own history. But are they really, deliberately faking it, or are they making honest mistakes? [...]
There is of course point in moral engagement in the past so long as it is not simply a matter of proving how morally superior in every way the present day historian is to the people of the past. No one now would defend slavery in any circumstances. but it is an historical fact and it is both pointless and absurd to spend one's time denouncing the slave holders of the past as if they could have acted very differently, or as if the present can somehow compensate the descendants of the slaves for the wrongs done to their ancestors, especially if it is claimed that the slave trade had nothing to do with the wars and injustices of the countries whence the slaves came. The history of the world up to the 20th century was one of invasions, conquests, settlement by force, population movements and population absorptions. Human history is not a pretty story. If anything, under the influence of movements which wished to reform humanity, the history of the 20th century was even worse. It is difficult to see what the point of moral engagement which does not take account of the sins of the engagŽs might be. Equally, it is pointless to pretend that history could have been anything other than it has been although it is worth speculating about how much worse off the Aborigines would have been if their colonisers had been any of the rivals of Britain, the gentlest of all colonial powers. The possibility of not being exposed to European settlers was simply not on the menu. The Aborigines suffered, as every other people has suffered from time to time in the course of world history.
That we owe a duty to Aborigines and their descendants today is not at issue. It has nothing to do with Left or Right, with conservatism or progressivism. But to those who would make it an issue and pretend that one side is good, the other bad, is really a shabby confession of determination to retain control of the writing of history for their own political purposes. The tone of the attacks on Windschuttle make this all too clear. They are not concerned about the welfare of present-day Aborigines, but about preserving the position which has been built up over the last thirty years or so. They are the keepers of the progressive flame, and to it they have subordinated the Aborigines in history and in person.
MORE:
-REVIEW: of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997) (Jared Diamond 1937-)
-REVIEW: of The Other Side of Eden : Hunters, Farmers and the Shaping of the World (2001) (Hugh Brody 1943-)
The speedy cancellation of fresh and intellectually challenging, or at least non-lobotomizing, television fare and its replacement with safe retreads of past winners has occurred since television's inception. Season after season, risk-averse network executives fall back on old and proven themes: sex, celebrities, teen sex — and lately, public humiliation — while viewers mutely follow along. The current television season has been particularly, soul-crushingly uncreative, but MTV's new animated series "Clone High USA" is proof that all hope is not lost.The world of "Clone High," in which teenaged clones of famous historical figures attend high school together, is a fascinating cross-pollination of the History Channel and "Saved By The Bell." Abe Lincoln roams the hallways pining for Cleopatra, a horny JFK can't keep his hands off all the hotties, Genghis Khan sports a "Screw Tibet" T-shirt and Gandhi and George Washington Carver partner up to make a student film called "Black and Tan." (Carver's animate peanut sidekick assists.) Watching teen versions of historical figures grapple with love, lust, alcohol, disease and other "after school special" issues is a comforting and surprisingly hilarious approach to teen angst. If Abe Lincoln was a hopeless sack in high school and Joan of Arc was a clueless romantic, you can't feel too badly about never getting past second base until your senior year. And by "you," I mean me.
The angst factor is boosted by each character's knowledge of their former selves. Every high school student suffers from feelings of inadequacy; knowing you are an exact genetic replica of JFK or Abe Lincoln as you wage an unsuccessful campaign for student council president significantly ups the ante. Expectations weigh heavily on most teens, but when your DNA is presidential, the weight can be crushing.
FOUR decades of feminism have turned middle-class French men into miserable creatures who are intimidated by women and losing their way in an increasingly matriarchal society, a study says.Men aged 20 to 45 believe that they have paid a heavy price for the social, legal and professional empowerment of women since the onset of the Pill and women’s liberation in the 1960s, according to the analysis for Elle, an upmarket women’s magazine.
“Men of all generations are suffering,” it said. “They feel diminished, devalued in a society where things feminine are perceived as positive and all-powerful values.”
Men under 35 in particular felt that they were being treated as sexual objects by predatory young women.
Elle was surprised by the sense of victimisation and the anger of men towards women — especially among the younger generation — revealed by the Centre de Communication AvancŽe study. “They think women have gone too far, too quickly, without setting any limit to their demands or ever questioning themselves,” Elle said.
Modern men see women as “castrating, vengeful, power-hungry and obsessed by men’s sexual performance”.
European shares have tumbled again, with London shares closing at their lowest level since May 1995.Paris stocks plummeted to levels a little over one third what they were at their September 2000 peak.
And Germany is now in the grips of a market downturn worse than it suffered in the Great Depression, calculations at investment bank Merrill Lynch have revealed.
Traders blamed the falls on poor corporate news, high oil prices, and the ever-present fears of war against Iraq.
Political moves on Wednesday were seen as heightening the risk of a lone US campaign against Iraq.
"It increasingly seems that the US is going to go it alone, which is the least desirable outcome," said Rupert Thompson, global strategist at independent brokerage E*trade.
To [Chen Wen, a 38-year-old laborer ], a job in Israel sounded like a great opportunity. In China, his family was sinking under nearly $20,000 in debt -- more than most Chinese earn in a lifetime -- partly because Mr. Chen had borrowed heavily as he tried to start his own tile business. When that failed, he borrowed even more to secure a visa to work abroad. While prices vary around China, he paid about $10,000 to a "middleman company" that arranged his visa.Mr. Chen was the only breadwinner in the family. He supported seven people, including a 14-year-old son who is mentally ill, two younger children, Mr. Chen's mother, and his 67-year-old father, who is blind....
In January, Mr. Chen was standing on a street in Tel Aviv when a Palestinian man ignited a suicide bomb. The blast, which killed 23 people, severed Mr. Chen's spinal cord and left him paralyzed from the waist down. He has been hospitalized in Israel ever since....
Clutching a small leather bag, Chen Weizhi shuffled past customs officers at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. Tears welled in her dark eyes.
"I simply don't now how we'll manage," she said, moments after her arrival in Israel. "I don't know how our family will survive."
"I know the Americans too well to imagine they could use such methods," Chirac said, brushing off a French journalist's question about whether there would be a price to pay for France's stance....Chirac's effort at turning a Western institutional confrontation of proportions unknown since de Gaulle's decision to pull France out of NATO in the 1960s into a disagreement among friends went as far as insisting that after Saddam's defeat "France, very obviously, will have its place" as an invited participant in Iraq's reconstruction....
"But they've already won!" [Chirac] said. "I told that to President Bush not very long ago. It's highly probable if the Americans and the British hadn't deployed these large forces, Iraq would not have produced this more active cooperation that the inspectors demanded and are now getting. So, in reality, you can say that in so far as their strategy for disarming Iraq goes, the Americans have already reached their objective. They've won."
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, the former Danish foreign minister, ... likened Chirac to King Lear, saying that the loss of its European primacy left France, "in the face of diminishing influence, alone with its impotent rage."
President Truman outlined a new foreign policy for the United States today. In a historic message to Congress, he proposed that this country intervene wherever necessary throughout the world to prevent the subjection of free peoples to Communist-inspired totalitarian regimes at the expense of their national integrity and importance.In a request for $400,000,000 to bolster the hard-pressed Greek and Turkish governments against Communist pressure, the President said the constant coercion and intimidation of free peoples by political infiltration amid poverty and strife undermined the foundations of world peace and threatened the security of the United States.
Although the President refrained from mentioning the Soviet Union by name, there could be no mistaking his identification of the Communist state as the source of much of the unrest throughout the world. He said that, in violation of the Yalta Agreement, the people of Poland, Rumania and Bulgaria had been subjected to totalitarian regimes against their will and that there had been similar developments in other countries.
As the Senate and House of Representatives sat grim-faced but apparently determined on the course recommended by the Chief Executive, Mr. Truman made these cardinal points of departure from traditional American foreign policy:
"I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
"I believe that our help should be primarily through economic and financial aid which is essential to economic stability and orderly political processes."
The Bush administration believes that it is one vote shy of having nine of 15 votes needed on a U.N. Security Council resolution that sets a Monday deadline for Iraqi compliance, a senior U.S. State Department official said, and officials are focusing diplomatic energies on Mexico and Chile to secure their backing.I have no idea if this is true. I'm pretty sure that I think that leaking it is a bad idea, regardless of whether its true. But, wow. As I've said before, I think that a majority of the council is more important than avoiding a veto. Now, how do we get Mexico and Chile on board?
The European Union vowed yesterday to press ahead with the admission of a divided Cyprus in 2004 despite a breakdown in peace talks that has virtually doomed Turkey's hopes of joining the EU in the foreseeable future.The situation on Cyprus is complex and I am by no means an expert. But I am willing to bet that our relationship with Turkey just got a little bit closer.
His White House ambitions and a lack of Irish heritage make him the perfect target at Sunday's St. Patrick's Day political roast, but U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry apparently won't be there to take the heat. [...]Kerry's staff says that he had to cancel the South Boston roast after his surgery last month.
But the surgery hasn't stopped Kerry from making a number of other campaign events. He is slated to appear at a major Boston fund-raiser tonight, and travels to California this weekend for political events and fund-raisers.
Kerry is also planning to appear at another St. Patrick's Day roast - in New Hampshire - the following weekend.
The St. Patrick's Day event in South Boston, where the state's political titans exchange insults and jokes, could be particularly uncomfortable for Kerry this year.
The senator is in the midst of a presidential campaign and has taken some criticism for failing to refute several inaccurate reports in the Boston Globe that cited his Irish ancestry.
Japan's Nikkei average closed below 8,000 on Tuesday for the first time in 20 years as government promises of co-ordinated action failed to stem a wave of selling driven by fear of war and economic misery.
The revelations of the last few days -- including the discovery by U.N. inspectors in Iraq of such "smoking guns" as a gas-spewing air drone, and delivery devices for chemical and biological bombs; the revelation on Al-Jazeera TV of one of Saddam's suicide-terrorist camps; the public threat by a member of Iraq's cabinet to gas the Kurds again; multiple reports of the placing of explosives in Iraqi oil wells both north and south; the allegation that France has been shipping spare parts for the repair of Saddam's air fleet through third parties in the Gulf -- such overwhelming evidence of the true state of affairs is ignored alike by media and diplomats. They have reached their decision, to isolate and damage the United States as much as possible, and grant Saddam a pass....The French et al. smell blood, they are not going to back off now when they see the prospect of doing real damage. Their strategy was from the beginning to split the British from the Americans by humbling Mr. Blair, to delay the inevitable full-scale attack into the Iraqi hot season, when the fighting would be more difficult and thus the casualties higher; to isolate the U.S. diplomatically; to galvanize the international peace movement against the Bush administration; and to improve Saddam's prospects for creating a catastrophe when war comes.
The French betrayal is as total as it was surprising, after earnest promises from President Chirac to support the U.S. in return for elaborate concessions on U.N. Resolution 1441. They think they now have President Bush in a fox-trap: from which he cannot escape without chewing off a leg. They may be right: he may now have no choice but to chew off the British leg.