read this.
whatever you think of Clinton, it seems he would have produced a much better response to the sept. 11 attacks than bush... it's like a scalpel compared to a hammer.
North Americans have worked to tear down the walls that inhibit their progress in science, economics and politics, but living without walls has left them vulnerable to terrorism, former U.S. president Bill Clinton says.
During a speech at a charity dinner last night, he said the trends which have lent the 21st century so much promise are impossibly bound up with the trends that have led to so much danger.
"You cannot take down walls, collapse distances and spread information . . . claim all the benefits of openness without making yourself more vulnerable in that openness," Clinton said.
On Sept. 10, North America was speeding forward with robust economies, technological advances, biological and scientific advances and a steady spread of democracy.
But also on Sept. 10, grinding poverty meant half the world's population lived on less than $2 a day, global warming threatens floods and disruptions to agriculture, the AIDS epidemic threatens to kill more people than the plague of the Middle Ages and terrorism was spreading.
"The world is about what they all have in common," Clinton said during an animated speech delivered without notes.
"All four positive and all four negative things reflect the astonishing degree to which we've become interdependent."
But Clinton stressed there are solutions.
First, the United States and Canada must win the war on terrorism, he said.
Secondly, "we have to spread the benefits and shrink the burdens of the world we live in so we have fewer potential terrorist and more potential partners."
That means helping developing countries with health and education programs. Many of those programs are underway and simply need more dedication, he said.
Last year, Canada and the United States voted to forgive the debts of the 24 poorest countries in the world, provided they put all that money into health, education and development.
As a result, Uganda, for one, doubled primary school enrolment in one year.
"We ought to do more of that," Clinton said.
In Brazil, 97 per cent of poor children go to school regularly because that country pays mothers to send them there.
Canada, the United States and the European should help out, he said.
"Does it cost money? Yep. It's a lot cheaper than going to war."
Finally, he said the United States and Canada need to do more to promote democracy.
And the United States must get more aggressive in countering the claims of the terrorists.
He said Muslims need to know how many of their fellow Muslims died in the World Trade Centre bombings.
And they should know that Canada, the United States and Britain went to war the last time to protect the rights of persecuted Muslims in Bosnia.
"Ultimately, this is a big fight for the soul of the 21st century," he said.
About 900 guests paid $350 each to dine on Saltspring lamb and coastal mushrooms with the president. An additional 150 paid $1,000 for a private reception and a chance for a photo with Clinton.
Some of the proceeds from the evening — $50,000 — was donated to the B.C. Children's Hospital.
B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell introduced Clinton by referring to the friendship between the two countries.
He said Vancouver firefighters collected more than $750,000 in one day to support the families of firefighters killed while trying to rescue people trapped in the World Trade Centre on Sept. 11.
Campbell also obliquely raised British Columbians' concerns about the current trade dispute with the United States over softwood lumber.
Without ever mentioning the hefty punitive duties the United States has imposed on B.C. softwood, Campbell noted that Clinton's leadership led to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"President Clinton has always been an advocate of free and open trade between Canada and the United States, free and open debate, free and open discourse, the things that strengthen our countries and strengthen our democracies," Campbell said, pointing out the two countries do $569 billion worth of trade.
The softwood duties have cost thousands of British Columbian jobs. Canada maintains the United States is turning its back on the spirit of free trade with the duties.
whatever you think of Clinton, it seems he would have produced a much better response to the sept. 11 attacks than bush... it's like a scalpel compared to a hammer.