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Britain
Blair: U.S. Needs to Integrate With World
2005-01-27
First the nonsense:
British Prime Minister Tony Blair called on the United States Wednesday to take the world's needs into account when it seeks global support for its actions, and cited climate change as an issue all nations must address together. "If America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda, too," Blair told the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.

Blair pledged to help developing countries reduce pollution and build more environmentally friendly economies. Blair called for a common agenda worldwide, at the top of which would be cooperation in the fight against terrorism. He also urged that the world's countries protect human rights and freedom and "when we can, seek to increase the number of people able to live in democracy."
The only thing Blair should have said:
He dismissed claims that the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq was trying to foist Western-style government on the country in this weekend's Iraqi elections. "The notion of democracy being a 'Western idea' is a nonsense and mythology as most recently the people of Afghanistan have powerfully demonstrated," he said.
Posted by:trailing wife

#19  #13-Sorry. Is there a synapse repairman in the house?

You guys know what I meant. ;}
Posted by: jules 2   2005-01-27 8:50:20 PM  

#18  Barbara, what's the point of living if one can't be one's inferiors' betters?

A2u, really! I saw something about it on the news once, about 1995. Neatly piled rows of the yellow trash bags that are only for plastics, as far as the camera could pan. Makes the punters feel good because they are doing something Good, keeps the housewives busy because it all has to be clean before its bagged, and no cost to the economy except for transport, as nothing is ever done with it. Perhaps they do now, they've had a decade to think it over, but they certainly didn't then. Perhaps TGA can update us.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-27 8:08:15 PM  

#17  I've got a better idea: Since we have the most robust economy, the largest and best-equipped military, and the most inventions and entrepreneurs (not to mention the right of self-defense denied so many other people around the world), the world needs to integrate with us.

C'mon, world - clean up your act. Decrease your regressive regulations, taxes, and welfare states and liberate your people. Quit being jealous of us and join us!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2005-01-27 7:56:34 PM  

#16  --all the plastics are picked up weekly curbside, then delivered for safekeeping to the salt mines in East Germany. --

No, really??

I enjoyed the salt mine tour.
Posted by: anonymous2u   2005-01-27 2:41:53 PM  

#15  "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations - entangling alliances with none." -- Thomas Jefferson
Posted by: Tom   2005-01-27 2:29:20 PM  

#14  British Prime Minister Tony Blair called on the United States Wednesday to take the world’s needs into account when it seeks global support for its actions,..

The obvious solution here is simple: when action is contemplated, do not seek "global support". Keep seeking it, and sooner or later everybody else starts to think that they have a say in your own business....
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2005-01-27 2:21:39 PM  

#13  "If America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda, too..."

If the rest of the world wants America to be part of the agenda it has set, America must be part of the world's agenda, too.

Same construction, completely different aftertaste. Wonder why.
Posted by: Jules 187   2005-01-27 1:50:37 PM  

#12  should be "a voice"
Posted by: liberalhawk   2005-01-27 1:27:38 PM  

#11  Yay for Tony, I voice of reason still.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2005-01-27 1:27:15 PM  

#10  Good rant, TW. Pet peeve for me as well. Re-forestation is just smart conservation.
Posted by: Jarhead   2005-01-27 1:24:34 PM  

#9  Europe has not yet, and will not, blow billions on Kyoto. As with so many other things, they talk big about this. As far as I've been able to determine, their Kyoto efforts are along the lines of Germany's recycling efforts: all the plastics are picked up weekly curbside, then delivered for safekeeping to the salt mines in East Germany. The last I'd heard, several levels have been filled with masses of unsorted plastic things. German recycling of paper, also collected curbside, has ruined the commercial French paper-recycling industry, and mandatory reuse of glass bottles has significantly increased gasoline usage due to massive shipments of empty bottles back to the manufacturers. Shoot, replanting the damaged and dying pines of the Schwarzwald, not to mention the other ancient forests of Germany, would go a distance toward offsetting CO2 emissions, but I'm not aware they are even doing that.
/rant. Sorry 'bout that, its a pet peeve of mine.
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-27 1:12:28 PM  

#8  AND, Mr. PM:

"Independence forever."

John Adams

June 30, 1826
Posted by: anonymous2u   2005-01-27 12:56:35 PM  

#7  The blogfather in his archives has a report from Rand Simburg(?) or someone who attended the last go-round in South America(?)/

Kyoto's dead as of 2012.

We, China, and other countries intend to handle global warming this way, Europe intends to blow billions on Kyoto.
Posted by: anonymous2u   2005-01-27 12:56:02 PM  

#6  Tony is playing to his base and to the Europeans.
He knows very few nations can even hope to comply with Kyoto. He also knows Bush can't attack another nation. The US doesn't have the troops to attack with. This is pre-election politicking.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2005-01-27 11:21:23 AM  

#5  Uh, Tony?...

Mostly "their agenda" involves lots of us dying in various nasty ways.

Pass.
Posted by: mojo   2005-01-27 11:16:19 AM  

#4  "Blair: U.S. Needs to Integrate With World"

I guess, I know that that means
Posted by: gromgorru   2005-01-27 9:37:31 AM  

#3  Sadly, Blair does Al Gore on world stage.

But this isn't surprising. Blair is a bleeding liberal by nature, and he is running for reelection in May.
Posted by: Captain America   2005-01-27 9:13:04 AM  

#2  There's only one way we're gonna integrate with the rest of the world: drag everyone else around to our way of doing things.

Kyoto? When you can't even get Barbara Boxer to vote for something...
Posted by: someone   2005-01-27 1:47:19 AM  

#1  Blair smells a Lame Duck cooking opportunity to advance US EU relations with the Arab World!
Posted by: smn   2005-01-27 12:50:49 AM  

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