Kofi: In an era of global abundance, our world has the resources to reduce dramatically the massive divides that persist between rich and poor, if only those resources can be unleashed in the service of all peoples.
It’s hard to believe that people in the year 2005 still believe that the answer to poverty is simply to use state (or in this case, international) power to redistribute wealth, but there you have it. Of course, the phrase “if only those resources can be unleashed in the service of all peoples,” is open to a bit of interpretation, but what is clear from this passage is that, yet again, poor countries are poor because rich countries are rich.
and
Kofi: I endorse fully the High-level Panel’s call for a definition of terrorism, which would make it clear that, in addition to actions already proscribed by existing conventions, any action constitutes terrorism if it is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a Government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act. (Emphasis added).
Under this definition, U.S. actions in Somalia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Iraq are all acts of international terrorism. In Somalia the U.S. engaged in offensive operations in a civilian area to force the de facto government to allow U.N. forces to distribute food aid. In Kosovo, the U.S. bombed a major European capital to force the Yugoslav/Serbian government to “abstain from” the act of ethnic cleansing. In Bosnia, the U.S. similarly used force in civilian areas to stop a self-declared government from committing further acts of genocide. And in Iraq, we bombed civilian centers to deny its forces command and control, power and transportation.
read it all. I am adding this blog to my analysis links.
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