With
his record of defending American borders and national sovereignty
in ruins, President Bush has decided to conclude his second term in
office by making common cause with those who think America’s future
lies in appeasing the “international community.”
By
Cliff Kincaid
With
his record of defending American borders and national sovereignty
in ruins, President Bush has decided to conclude his second term in
office by making common cause with those who think America’s future
lies in appeasing the “international community.” He apparently wants
his “legacy” to be that he cared for the rest of the world. Watch
your wallets—and your freedom.
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The
latest phase of this “legacy building” campaign began with a plea
on Wednesday for more money to fight AIDS. This provided a photo opportunity
for the President to pose
with a black child. So far, about $200 billion has been spent
by the federal government on AIDS, without any cure or vaccine being
developed. But it looks “compassionate” to throw money at the problem.
Tens of billions are now being spent, some of it provided by agreements
brokered through Bill Clinton’s foundation, to fight AIDS with potentially
toxic and lethal drugs.
On
the eve of the G-8 meeting of major industrialized nations in Germany,
Bush gave a global warming speech on Thursday at an event hosted by
the U.S. Global Leadership Campaign. This is a coalition of business
and non-government organizations that includes the pro-world government
Citizens for Global Solutions, Physicians for Social Responsibility,
Ted Turner’s U.N. Foundation, Planned Parenthood, the American Friends
Service Committee, the Alliance for a Global Community, and the United
Nations Association.
It
looks like Bush is abandoning what’s left of his conservative base
before they abandon him.
Bush
told the group, “This is a fine organization and it’s an important
organization. It’s rallying businesses and non-governmental organizations
and faith-based and community and civic organizations across our country
to advance a noble cause, ensuring that the United States leads the
world in spreading hope and opportunity.”
Another
part of this “legacy building” is his decision to seek ratification
of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a dangerous
document that transfers control of the oceans and much of the land
area of the world as well to a U.N. bureaucracy. It finances its activities
with a global tax. The pact is endorsed by some of the same groups
and individuals involved in the Global Leadership Campaign.
UNCLOS
charges American corporations a “fee” for exploiting ocean resources
for the benefit of America and threatens these same corporations with
global climate change litigation before an international court if
they “pollute” the oceans from anywhere on the face of the earth.
U.S.
Navy support for UNCLOS masks the sharp decline in U.S. Naval forces.
The number of U.S. ships has declined under Bush to 276, from a high
of 594 under President Reagan, who rejected UNCLOS. The Bush budget
projects their further decline to 210. The American Shipbuilding Association
says that, if present trends continue, the U.S. Naval Fleet will decline
to 180 ships by 2024.
Those
who haven’t been paying attention think that Bush’s policy for the
last six years has been “unilateralist” and anti-U.N. He did keep
us out of the global warming and International Criminal Court treaties.
He also withdrew the U.S. from the ABM treaty so the nation could
pursue national missile defense. But generally speaking, he has been
pouring huge amounts of money into the U.N. and associated institutions.
Office of Management and Budget figures show that U.S. financial contributions
to the U.N. System under Bush have gone from $3.1 billion in fiscal
year 2001 to $5.3 billion in fiscal year 2005.
The
office of Senator Tom Coburn, who requested and released the information,
commented in a press release that “According to the report, in 2005,
the United States gave $5.3 billion to the U.N—a 30% increase from
2004 funding level of $4.1 billion. Almost every Department of the
U.S. government plus several independent agencies fund the U.N. Although
the U.N. does not track this information or at least does not make
such information public, most experts say the total U.N. budget is
between $15-20 billion. The U.S. funded portion is between 25% and
30%.”
But
that’s not good enough for the Global Leadership Campaign. It thinks
too little has been spent on international affairs.
In his
speech to the group, Bush seemed to be proposing another and much-tougher
global warming treaty. “By the end of next year, America and other
nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases,”
he said. “To help develop this goal, the United States will convene
a series of meetings of nations that produce most greenhouse gas emissions,
including nations with rapidly growing economies like India and China.”
He said each nation would develop a “national target” of reducing
greenhouse gases.
With
this speech, Bush has capitulated to the alarmists who blame man-made
greenhouse gases for perceived changes in climate.
In
the past, at the G-8 meetings, the Bush Administration has been opposed
to measures by France and Britain to endorse global taxation schemes.
One of them, an international tax on airline travel, was sold as a
“solidarity contribution” to fight AIDS. A new bureaucracy, UNITAID,
has been created to receive and spend the global tax revenue.
The
U.N. has been pushing a global tax to fight global warming that amounts
to a 35-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax hike.
This
time, it can be anticipated that Bush Administration opposition to
global taxes will completely collapse. After all, the White House
has already endorsed a global tax scheme through the Law of the Sea
Treaty.
All
of this opens the door for Congress to promote and pass a carbon tax
of some kind, perhaps as part of the new global warming treaty that
Bush apparently envisions. It will be difficult for Bush to resist
such a tax, in light of his recent rhetoric on the subject.
Bush
is putting in place the New World Order his father talked about.
[Ed Note: And here is President George H.W. Bush talking about it...]
Initial speech was actually delivered on September 11, 1990
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Cliff Kincaid, serves as editor of the Accuracy in Media (AIM) Report in Washington, DC.
sovereignty
