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Activists 'Shocked' at Clinton Stance on China Rights
WASHINGTON - Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, listens to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi during a joint press conference, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009 in Beijing, China. Amnesty International USA said the global rights lobby was "shocked and extremely disappointed" by Clinton's remarks.
(AP Photo/Guang Niu) Paying her first visit to Asia as the top US diplomat, Clinton said the United States would continue to press China on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet.
"But our pressing on those issues can't interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis," Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing.
T. Kumar of Amnesty International USA said the global rights lobby was "shocked and extremely disappointed" by Clinton's remarks.
"The United States is one of the only countries that can meaningfully stand up to China on human rights issues," he said.
"But by commenting that human rights will not interfere with other priorities, Secretary Clinton damages future US initiatives to protect those rights in China," he said.
Students for a Free Tibet said Clinton's remarks sent the wrong signal to China at a sensitive time.
"The US government cannot afford to let Beijing set the agenda," said Tenzin Dorjee, deputy director of the New York-based advocacy group.
China has been pouring troops into the Himalayan territory ahead of next month's 50th anniversary of the uprising that sent Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama into exile in India.
"Leaders really need to step up and pressure China. It's often easy to wonder whether pressure makes a difference. It may not make a difference in one day or one month, but it would be visible after some years," Dorjee said.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had sent a letter to Clinton before her maiden Asia visit urging her to raise human rights concerns with Chinese leaders.
Before she left, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said human rights would be "an important issue" for Clinton and that she would "raise the issue when appropriate."
China has greeted President Barack Obama's administration nervously, believing he would press Beijing harder on human rights and trade issues than former president George W. Bush.
89 Comments so far
Show AllAs a public official, she is simply doing her job and stating what the new Obama administration's position is going to be.
china owns us. i'm not sure why everyone's got their panties in a wad over this one.
Your point is correct to my mind; your metaphor- well, I don't understand it, and it's truly disgusting.
Andy,
This is an American colloquial phrase. It is not meant to be written, usually. It just means that one becomes troubled or upset about something.
Same as the Brits use "knickers in a twist" Hoyt as you know, but my English friends use it in speech occasionally.
¿ Cannot we ALL now deep down feel the love in
U N I T E D __ W E D G I E S __ of __ A M E R I C A ?
Namaste
That's right. Hillary is in China hat in hand. Beggars can't be choosers.
Typical, vilify Hillary (she is the wicked witch, after all) and run nothing today on the multiple war crimes Obama has already committed by violating international law with drone attacks. Impeachable offenses. Oh, and have you ever shown pictures of the millions of people starving due to Obama's ethanol policy? By the way, if you put the whole transcript up of what Hillary said your story would likely sink.
Or how about a story about how Obama held back on his decision to send the 17,000 more troops into Afghanistan because he was "contemplating it." When in fact, he was waiting to make his decision just hours before the mortgage bailout plan so the story would be thoroughly buried. How about that story?
Ever thought of running a story on the 46 billion dollars the Clinton Foundation has received in pledges, and the 200 million people that the money has filtered out to? Who cares about the source of that money?
fenner, CD hasn't posted all its articles for the day. there's plenty of stuff up on CD re afghanistan, plenty. and not daily, but w/some frequency, on ethanol, etc.
hillary is a representative, the primary one on the world stage, of the obama admin, right? so what the hell are you talkin about?
Activists 'Shocked' at Obama Repeatedly Breaking International Law After Only One Month in Office
(Obama is the first American President to go down in history as firing missles within the boundaries of a sovereign nation only four days after the inauguration)
Where is that sensational headline? The one that doesn't villify Hillary? Enough said.
Thanks for stopping by, Chelsea-- er, I mean "Fenner".
But your righteous outrage on Hillary's behalf curiously omits any recognition of the deplorable truth that Hillary and her nominal master Obama are both amoral technocrats who compulsively seek the path of self-serving expediency as the basis for all of their actions.
In that dreadful spirit, they have long since abandoned their superficial differences and made common cause in what each doubtless considers a win-win arrangement.
So it's a waste of crocodile tears to complain that Hillary is unfairly being castigated while Obama is given a free pass.
They're consensually bound at the hip. Hillary isn't even the Good Cop.
It's like complaining that Bonnie is getting all the bad press for carrying a pistol, when Clyde was the one using a Tommy gun.
· Yr Obd't Servant
I love Bill more than Hillary, I'll admit that. It's a shame you'll never be ever to address the 46 billion the guy has raised. I guess that must just be another one of his evil acts in your mind.
As sec of state, Hillary is representing the US. If you actually read the article, she is being the criticism isn't so much directed at her personally, ie Hillary Clinton, but rather at Secretary of State Clinton, representing Obama, and the US.
"Obama is the first American President to go down in history as firing missles within the boundaries of a sovereign nation only four days after the inauguration"
In fact we can go a step further ... he ensured the missiles were fired from drones that took off and landed in that very same sovereign nation !!
As if the US has any right to make any pronouncements about other nations' human rights records, particularly given the recent history in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo. That would be like South Africa in the 1980s criticizing another country for having poor racial relations. This is theater of the absurd.
My thoughts exactly, Kival...
Right on.
While the US as an actor in international relations may not be able to say certain things, lest it appear hypocritical and thus be forced to illuminate some of it's own shortcomings and transgressions, this does NOT mean that we as citizens of a presumably free and open society cannot oppose injustice and speak our mind when a wrong has been clearly committed.
I hold it is our DUTY to speak up for the security of the defenseless. Those who give away liberty for security deserve neither, as Ben Franklin once said. Our whole facade of promoting peace abroad shatters to shambles when we forgive such a longstanding and stoppable aggression such as the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
Some people may say that the white man's burden we've acquired through a history of enslaving Africans, propping up dictators like Saddam, starving India, or slaughtering the Native Americans render all acts of charity from those affiliated with the US or the UK to be backhanded and ethically insufficient.
We cannot be constrained by the past, but must empowered by it. Simply because we KNOW that our actions have been false, and our freedom is the result of war and cultural genocide means that we can find a better way. Just because we have acted barbarically as a species does not portend that we should be destined to remain so.
I suggest that it is ONLY the US, who may right this wrong. It is only after forgiving ourselves that we may learn to love. While our country is not perfect, it amazes me that we can even write these sorts of critiques online without governmental intervention, as would be the case were I criticizing the Chinese from within China. Our ability to speak out about all this is our birthright, and the blood sacrifice of countless dead African Americans, soldiers, women, Native Americans and families.
Please let not their sacrifice be in vain, and stand for the freedom, liberty, equality, and HUMAN RIGHTS, that no resident of this planet should ever be denied.
I believe this is a hope of commondreams.org, and I think that occasionally a departure from intellectually grounded skepticism might bring not only balance to discussion, but also hope.
How can we be secure economically if we allow the autonomy and diversity of world culture to be decimated under the flag of commercial development. The strength Tibet might potentially gain as a participant in international trade is moot, since their culture is being obliterated and replaced with Chinese culture. Like in biology, diversity is essential to maintaining a dynamic and rich habitat. By denying Tibetans the right to use their own yak dung for fuel without taxation, and by giving them Yen to compensate them for dumping nuclear waste from China, integration with China occurs at the expense of Tibetan self-ownership.
The complete obliteration of Tibetan monasteries does not help anyone. It only serves to demoralize the culture and undermine the most basic organized structures: the individual's spirituality, and the significance of the family. Why must the Falun Gong be beaten and murdered within China? It seems that not only the Tibetans suffer the wrath of modern Chinese abuse. Why must the Chinese support genocide in Darfur? Why must our contentment and comfort be soaked in the blood of millions. I'm amazed most Americans can sleep at night realizing we import so much from them.
If our freedom is worth anything, we would best use it to stop ourselves before it's too late. We have a strong country that is capable of autonomy and fostering peace. We can bomb the world to pieces, but we may certainly not bomb it to peace.
We as a planet must remove divisions and realize that ALL violence is condemnable no matter who does it to who. Just because we can't stop the US on it's militaristic binge, does not mean that we cannot cease to be self-destructive and begin to be ubiquitously nurturing. If bad PR is all it will take to shake our dependence on China, then we should as writers and analysts hold our leaders accountable by all means. If the US is indeed a corporation, then we are all stakeholders who have a right to say what happens with the capital derived from our human capital. The USA is a company that cannot afford to fall like an Enron; too many depend on us. We must use our vigilance, indignation, and common dreams to shift the economy from a debt based pipe dream to one that takes into account more than merely the Gross National Product, which as Vandana Shiva points out, does not take into account pollution, loss of human capital, and sickness and disease. The people of the nation of Bhutan measure their nation's worth in Gross National Happiness. That sounds vaguely familiar...
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Perhaps the pursuit of profit wasn't the sole motive of the framers, nor is the justification for our national experiment called America. This could possibly be why 'pursuit of property,' as was written by John Locke was changed to happiness. PROPERTY IS NOT HAPPINESS!!!
Part of liberty means to be free to pursue whichever path is best for you, which allows for an open society. Equality implies equality of opportunity (misunderstood often as work ethic or as an affirmation of a meritocratic system). The right to life includes the Afghanis!
Although I disagree with Obama's foreign policy, and the violence that has ensued with unmanned drones (terrifying implications for homeland security, by the way), one of his lines is absolutely true:
We are the change we have been waiting for.
Lots of nice talk, but currently the U.S. -citizens and representatives- have lost their right to make speeches OR shake sticks. It is entirely disingenuous for the schoolyard bully to lecture others until he sets his own affairs straight. In other words, there are years of penance to pay, with humility and noses to the grindstone, while the mouth is kept shut.
I am ashamed of what others do ( and have done -- will do ) that collectively bridles America to such a milestone of deceit, unchecked greed, and unrelenting violence perpetrated upon innocents -- sowing the seeds of destruction, depravity, desolation, and the World's disgust.
Please do forgive me for allowing my petty self gratifications to wickedly impinge upon the fates of so many, in such a heartless and twisted manner, to darken the LIGHT of our birthright to be happy and to know true ineffable self.
Although my actions have been despicable, and billions suffer in hunger and need -- I accept responsibility for it all and now shout my LOVE for ALL -- as I must atone with my mistakes to progress through grace to the possibility of forgiveness.
FEAR and anger have too long distorted my moral compass, and it is now time to put aside those childish and empty gestures to reach out to my fellow BEINGS as an EQUAL.
The change begins in ME, as that possibility is present in every moment ( NOW ) -- if I so chose
Namaste
____ N A M A S T E ___ M E A N S ____
There is much within this greeting/salutation, a Sanskrit word meaning:
"The Light of God in Me
recognizes and honors The Light of God in You
and in that recognition is our Oneness"
MORE FULLY:
"I honor the place in you
in which the entire Universe dwells,
I honor the place in you
which is of Love, of Truth, of Light and of Peace,
When you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me,
we are One."
IN EVEN MORE DETAIL:
"For, Hindu(s), of course, the greeting of choice is “Namaste,”
the two hands pressed together and held near the heart with the
head gently bowed as one says, “Namaste.” Thus it is both a
spoken greeting and a gesture, a Mantr(a) and a Mudr(a). The
prayerful hand position is a Mudr(a) called Anjali, from the root
Anj, “to adorn, honor, celebrate or anoint.” The hands held in
union signify the oneness of an apparently dual cosmos, the
bringing together of spirit and matter, or the self meeting the
Self. It has been said that the right hand represents the higher
nature or that which is divine in us, while the left hand
represents the lower, worldly nature.
In Sanskrit “Namas” means, “bow, obeisance, reverential
salutation.” It comes from the root Nam, which carries meanings
of bending, bowing, humbly submitting and becoming silent. “Te”
means “to you.” Thus “namaste” means “I bow to you.”
be subtle ways of enhancing the gesture, as in the West one might
shake another’s hand too strongly to impress and overpower them
or too briefly, indicating the withholding of genuine welcome.
In the case of Namaste, a deeper veneration is sometimes
expressed by bringing the fingers of the clasped palms to the
forehead, where they touch the brow, the site of the mystic Third
Eye. A third form of namaste brings the palms completely above
the head, a gesture said to focus consciousness in the subtle
space just above the Brahma-randhra, the aperture in the Crown
Chakr(a). This form is so full of reverence it is reserved for
the Almighty and the holiest of Sat Guru(s). the Almighty and the
holiest of Sat Guru(s)."
J B O L T 4 1 1 ,
Thank you for the empowering thoughts and uplifting words, and welcome to CD.
YES, "We are the change we have been waiting for."
It ALL starts with ONE, as we are ONE when we REVERE LIFE and enfold ALL beautiful human BEING kindness consciousness.
Namaste
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world » — Gandhi
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed » — Gandhi
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — ML King
"The US government cannot afford to let Beijing set the agenda"
the u.s. gov't can't afford to do otherwise. pissing off the chinese might not be high on the agenda.
on a different note, and if anybody has some enlightenment on this, please let me know, native chinese look at the tibet issue quite differently than the U.S. does, many of them anyway. they think the dalai lama is a cia stooge, and the u.s. gets worked up about tibet primarily to have an excuse to intervene in chinese affairs (such intervention being mostly rhetorical at this point, unlike, say, arming/funding taiwan). tibet is an economic backwater that itself is destabilizing to the region due to its underdevelopment, and westerners' romanticism with tibetan buddhism and the lama is just silly.
i'm not saying i buy this perspective, having a rather limited knowledge of tibet, but i have no doubt the western media oversimplifies tibet-china issues to drum up anti-chinese sentiment.
thoughts?
Your depiction sounds about right. And we should not forget that before China took over Tibet it was a feudal society in which most of the people lived under a form of enslavement and had no access to education or healthcare. And the Dalai Lama has worked with the CIA and the US has used him to be a thorn in China's side. And throughout the 19th Century and into the 20th the Western powers dominated China and made the Chinese second-class citizens in their own country.
Most Americans do not even know about the Opium Wars, though all Chinese do. It had to do with the British using their naval power, allegedly with US help, to destroy the Chinese navy so that the Chinese could not block the importation of opium, which the British hoped to make a fortune off of selling (and they did). That war, and innumerable other acts of domination, are why the Chinese are well-justified in their suspicion of the "white devils."
Simple question:
Do you believe that native Tibetans have a right to self determination? To choose what they want of their lives?
Why do the Chinese get to "take over" and improve their lives? Should the US also get to "take over" various countries and improve the lives of the citizens of those countries?
If US presence / interference in countries where they are not wanted is unacceptable, why is China "taking over" Tibet acceptable?
And let's call what China did for what it is, a military invasion.
According to current international law, The Kingdom of Hawaii is a free and independent nation under a hostile military takeover from the United States. The people of Hawaii never signed a single treaty with the U.S. government and absolutely did not want to be annexed by the U.S.. A small militia imprisoned the Queen, at the behest of a small group of American businessmen and against the wishes of President Cleveland, and the takeover officially ensued. After over a century of cultural genocide, military and economic dominance, and a whole lot of other bringing of democracy, Hawaii became a state and now we all think it is just part of the U.S.
But under international law, it is actually not.
So....when has time marched on long enough for history to be washed away? Maybe we can all contemplate this as we watch the waves washing our feet clean as we walk on the sandy beaches in 'the 50th state' contemplating how China is 'taking over' Tibet.
Thank you S P U D S
Good to know that herstory.
Namaste
One thing the Chinese have is long memories (referencing the Opium Wars). And while there is plenty of biased (I'm being kind) reporting and education in China, there is also (as you allude) a big serving of it in the U.S. (as most of us know) and people on both sides are misinformed about a lot of things.
That being said, the current attitude in China is that the U.S. has gone from being a country that everyone admired and looked up to (yes, in fact the vast majority of Chinese people did, as recently as a several years ago) to a country that has lost all moral standing and is in a current state of deserved economic desperation. When you mention anything about anyone from the U.S. telling the Chinese how to behave in any area these days, Chinese people just laugh and say the U.S. needs to get its own house in order.
I agree with your points except for your "Tibet is an economic backwater that is destabilizing to the region due to its underdevelopment". I think development is too often the greatest problem for ancient societies.
Well, here is the issue:
Do you believe that native Tibetans have right to self determination?
Just as native Iraqis, or native Iranians, have a right to self determination?
How about Native Americans and Native Hawaiians?
If these activists are "shocked," then they're not very bright.
we are now a HAMBURGER HELPER REPUBLIC. we went from a lender nation to a debtor nation. she did not go over there to talk about human rights. she went there with her hat in hand, and she will be handed her hat on the way out the door. we have lost all credibility to tell another nation about human rights. the obama regime will continue the shrub policies.
Amnesty International should be shocked that China isn't dong more to pressure the United States on its human rights abuses.
The U.S. prison population has grown by more than 50 percent since 1990 to about two and a half million men and women--the largest incarceration percentage in the world and 25 percent of the world's entire prison population. Some 2 million children have one or both parents in prison.
98 percent of judges in the U.S. are white, and nearly half of the prison population is African American.
The United States is one of only five countries that sentence juveniles to death, and has the highest number of such sentences.
The US tortures and renders innocent prisoners.
Prison statistics aren't all. Human rights in the U.S. are abysmal in so many other ways.
Human trafficking and sexual slavery is now the third most profitable form of illegal business in the U.S., at more than ten billion U.S. dollars annually.
A United Nations Children's Fund report shows that the number of U.S. children in poverty is second highest of all industrialized countries. More than fifteen million U.S. children are poverty-stricken.
The U.S waged wars in foreign countries and regions more than 40 times in the 1990s alone .
The Pentagon's acknowledges use of cluster bombs and depleted uranium shells, which are banned by international law.
The United States maintains a safe lair for more transnational corporate marauders, defrauders and ecological pillagers than any other den on earth.
The United States willfully, consistently and belligerently maintains a combined record of the worst healthcare, childcare, mortality rate, education level, homelessness, and housing security rates for its citizens as compared to any other first world country.
Maybe China could put pressure on America's zealous human rights violations by threatening to withhold shipments of sacred plastic relics to the American state sponsored Church of Walmart. Maybe then, the illusive conscience of America will appear.
Maybe China could put pressure on America's zealous human rights violations by threatening to withhold shipments of sacred plastic relics to the American state sponsored Church of Walmart.
Beautiful. Thanks for that!
Thanks for the needed added perspective. The US is sure enough an insidious hypocritical power.
More importantly though, it is necessary to understand how the highest levels of global power are not nationalistic.
Take the NFL as an example. You can be a fan of your favorite team but it is the NFL organization that makes the rules and officiates the game play. The pitting of one team against another is for amusement, and it matters little to the league which team you prefer. The players and coaches on the game field, as well as the fans, and even the team managers and owners are just pieces in a game that must by necessity extend well beyond any team or individual participant. And so it goes with this nationalistic BS, Hillary Clinton, or China's public policies. China is just another team playing the global game of monopoly.
To have any real effect, if that is indeed what this is suppose to be about, then we need to focus more of our attention and effort on identifying and addressing league operators, operations, strategies, objectives and the overall dynamics of the whole league, as opposed to getting caught up with individual team stats, rosters and player score cards. We need to change the game itself. But, of course, the game of global prestige and power is far more complex and obfuscated than NFL football. And it is much easier and more fun to watch the game than to take on the weight of the world.
excellent analogy
“Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group voiced shock Friday after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed not to let human rights concerns hinder cooperation with China.”
Cannot agree more.
It sounds very bad for the “progressive” cause, especially when one takes in the account that human rights loving party is none other as representative of the government, which denied to so many millions of people around the globe the most undeniable right of all - right to life, not to say about right to liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Amnesty International and a pro-Tibet group will do much better if they dissociate themselves from that illegitimate body a.k.a. the US Congress, which after years of approving illegitimate actions of one illegitimate President after another, keep pontificating Urbi et Orbi about human rights albeit very selectively. Looking another way in all oil producing countries, they keep grilling “strategic competitors”, since recently a new buzz word in Washington, DC. Only with history of Anglo-American Divide et Impera modus operandi in mind one can fully appreciate case in point, Tibet.
For centuries Tibetan lamas were parasitizing on illiterate masses to much greater extent than even Catholic or Orthodox Churches did in Europe. Liberation of Europe by Reformation never was allowed in Tibet. Chinese Communist did for Tibetans what Martin Luther did for Europeans – they liberated them from intellectual slavery. Given a choice between indoctrination by Dalai Lama and Karl Marx, any sane person will choose latter any day of the week.
Support for Dalai Lama along with the State Department diminish human rights cause and cast doubts about wisdom or sincerity or even motivations of pro-Tibetan groups. If succeeded, they bet will bring to Tibet the same fate as was visited upon so called New Europe, where people now are paying steep price for listening to sirens preaching self-determination and human rights. Instead of democratic pie in the sky they were dealt a full hand of Free Market Capitalism.
In 1989 People Liberation Army used tanks against useful idiots to put a foundation to ending China’s Grand Depression, which lasted from 1840 until now. Chinese will be very wise to do “whatever it takes” not to let Tibet to slip back to “Free World”.
Free World will be even wiser not to mess with other people until after it fix its own mess.
v.purto
"Liberation of Europe by Reformation never was allowed in Tibet. Chinese Communist did for Tibetans what Martin Luther did for Europeans – they liberated them from intellectual slavery. Given a choice between indoctrination by Dalai Lama and Karl Marx, any sane person will choose latter any day of the week."
So, in that cases, surely you don't oppose sane Tibetans being allowed to choose, on any day of the week, whom they want? In a free and fair referendum?
"Support for Dalai Lama along with the State Department diminish human rights cause and cast doubts about wisdom or sincerity or even motivations of pro-Tibetan groups. If succeeded, they bet will bring to Tibet the same fate as was visited upon so called New Europe, where people now are paying steep price for listening to sirens preaching self-determination and human rights. Instead of democratic pie in the sky they were dealt a full hand of Free Market Capitalism."
Ahh. I see. If people make the choice you don't agree with, it "diminishes human rights". It is "sirens preaching self-determination and human rights".
Gotcha. So, people are only allowed to choose, on any day of the week, as long as they make the choices you dictate.
"In 1989 People Liberation Army used tanks against useful idiots to put a foundation to ending China’s Grand Depression, which lasted from 1840 until now."
Right. The Army murdered the country's own citizens with tank. But they are "useful idiots".
Let us all make the "Great Leap Forward". But you probably see me as a "bourgeiosie" , a useful idiot, who should be murdered by soldiers.
With ezeflyer, I would say that it is the lender who sets the agenda. We will swirl down the toilet with our moral convictions firmly disconnected.
I thought everbody wanted the United States to mind its own business and stop interfering in other countries internal affairs?
Sorry this is off topic, but Thomas, here is some info on the Army & HS military recruiting in Texas:
From the Houston Chronicle, Feb 15, 2009-
"Four suicides of Texas Army recruiters (all from the same battalion) prompted a suspension of Army recruiting nation-wide on Friday, Feb. 20 to focus on leadership training and suicide prevention".
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6261403.html.
(also posted this on "Wake Up Call" CD article)
Peace.
Penelope
Thanks very much for posting this. It may be off topic but it is important to me. I'd heard there were a bunch of chicken hawk officers doing this kind of thing. I didn't know it was as widespread as this article indicates.
These cowards, thats what they are...never served a day at risk threatening these guys makes me want to throw up.
Telling the recruiters to guide conversation away from the wars is the same as telling them to lie. I'm very proud of Sgt. Patrick for doing his duty. This is an instance where a direct order conflicts with your duty.
As for Gen. Freakley....he knows what he wants to know. He is lying of course.
Thanks again! Very much.
i just talked to a kid in the national guard. they gave him $2,000.00 to sign up his friend. one recruit a month not bad. the kid does not work, he just recruits one a month. they have become professional bounty hunters. shame on our country.
Sir....not "shame on our country", shame on the pitiful officer corp that would allow that. The shame is entirely bourne by our military personnel in charge of recruiting if that is true. (and their superiors)
I'm told by our local sergeant that the Corp doesn't do that, but I'm checking with higher authority.
In any case this is a shameful thing, both that stated in the article and your accusation if true. Shameful.
"But our pressing on those issues can't interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis," Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing."
Of course not! It's China's money that's keeping the U.S. Government in operation. They own us now!
Activists should be a little more sensitive to Chinese culture,the daily life of the vast majority of its citizens, the country's own economic difficulties and the troubles the government has managing such a vast and diverse population. They should understand that the development of the legal and human rights in Western nations- by no means itself perfect- occurred over vast period of history and that we should not expect others with very different historical experiences to immediately satisfy our most stringent notions of what's correct.
Take the example of Vietnam. Is it not the case that our direct confrontation with the Communist government simply delayed their progress- at the cost of millions of lives and untold misery- and that such improvements as are now beginning to appear in that country could have occurred much earlier with far less pain if the Vietnamese had been allowed to do things themselves, in their own way, without massive outside interferrance? Will this also not prove to be the case in Afghanistan? The Taliban had just taken over the government and was already suffering from its own inexperience and mistakes when the invasion, based on various frightening pretexts, took place. Interference forces them back into extremisms which they might have relaxed to significant degrees if left to their own devices.
I'm no fan of Hillary's or guy like Holbrooke. They will not hesitate to push the same human rights "agenda" as "the activists" when it suits their purpose. The distinction is that of an empty suit. We need a real change. We need to get beyond the fruitless debate from two sides of the same argument based on some Bismarkian notion of "the art of the possible".
"New boss same as the old boss"
To all the progressive suckers out there. Stop whining, you put Mr. Obama in office with all of his right wing neocon and Clinton shills.
Now live with your choice, fools.
Would you truly have preferred McCain Hoyt? Isn't it better to have this guy rather than Bush 2 for sure?
In any case, the day I decide he is nothing more than a waste of 4 years, you are on my list for a "you were right" along with some others here. And if he keeops going at the present rate, it may not be long.
Personally, I think Obama is trying to piss-off the majority who voted for him so we'll get off of our ass' and start a peacful rebellion. Didn't he tell us all along that he needs our support to get things done even after he takes office?
Does anyone really believe that Obama is running this show on his own when we all know that "money" has replaced the "rule of law"?
Gail
Well it sure is working on me, but my rebellion is going to be against him, Pelosi and Reid.