Posted by bruised sankho from proxy.connexus.net.au (203.222.88.23) on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 at 8:12PM :
In Reply to: "Bush Asks NATO to Help Avoid War" posted by Lilly from ? (160.129.27.22) on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 at 4:09PM :
This'll stir up the paunchmeister...
"At this moment in history, if there is a world problem, we're expected to deal with it," Mr Bush said. "It's the price of power. It is the price of where the United States stands. We will."
The problems Mr Bush believes the United States must confront are not just strategic, but also humanitarian.
"Yes, in some ways it is, that a person that thinks in terms of liberating a country, and at the same time fighting a war, is someone who also understands that we've got to deal with suffering," he said.
It was for this reason, Mr Bush said, that he had pressed General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to drop humanitarian aid into Afghanistan before the US bombing campaign began.
"I was sensitive to this (accusation) that this was a religious war, and that somehow the United States would be the conqueror. And I wanted us to be viewed as the liberator," Mr Bush said. Humanitarian concerns, he said, were also behind the necessity of confronting Iraq and North Korea. "Clearly, there will be a strategic implication to a regime change in Iraq, if we go forward. But there's something beneath that, as far as I'm concerned - and that is, there is immense suffering. Or North Korea. Let me talk about North Korea. I loathe Kim Jong iI. I've got a visceral reaction to this guy because he is starving his people."
-- bruised sankho
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