Fw: AT A CRITICAL MOMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY - SO BIZARRE AS TO BE BEYOND BELIEF*
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From: rainbow7
To: MITCH//
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 12:07 AM
Subject: AT A CRITICAL MOMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY - SO BIZARRE AS TO BE BEYOND BELIEF*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mel Hurtig's Keynote Address to the 2005 Association of World Citizens Conference
[The following is the full text of a speech by Mel Hurtig to be given at the Association of World Citizens Conference tomorrow, Aug 2 2005, posted at the express request of the author.-Vive Editor]
AT A CRITICAL MOMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY
SO BIZARRE AS TO BE BEYOND BELIEF*
A Keynote Address by Mel Hurtig
Association of World Citizens Conference
University of San Francisco
August 2, 2005
*words from an article by Robert S. McNamara, Foreign Policy, May/June 2005
In what follows, I acknowledge with gratitude and admiration the invaluable work of Douglas Roche, O.C. formerly Canadas Ambassador for Disarmament and currently Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative. Roches analysis of the May, 2005 Seventh Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty is perceptive and extremely important.
While all of us in this room are fully aware of the dismaying failure of the crucial Seventh Review Conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty which took place in New York in May, I very much doubt if one in a thousand around the world paid attention to the month-long deliberations or have any even vague idea of their importance, or the inevitable tragic consequences of the enormously disappointing Conference results.
Not only was no progress made on the vitally important issues of nuclear disarmament, proliferation, abolishing testing and the continuing upgrading and refinement of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, but in a shocking betrayal to the worlds aspirations for peace, disarmament and redirecting arms funding to badly-needed humanitarian use, clear-cut widely agreed-to commitments made in the previous 1995 and 2000 Reviews were either ignored or repudiated.
Its impossible not to single out the administration of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for the Conference failure. Time and again the U.S. blocked crucial references to earlier commitments and continued to stubbornly refuse to join the widely-supported Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
While most countries wanted a strengthened Non-Proliferation Treaty, the U.S. clearly wanted it weakened.
And, while many U.S. allies, including seven NATO states called for specific steps to quicken nuclear disarmament, and almost 2,000 NGOs presented thoughtful, passionate pleas and warnings about the growing dangers of proliferation, and while well-reasoned plans for verification and the elimination of nuclear arsenals were presented and overwhelmingly supported, the U.S. frustrated any such progress towards goals almost universally supported.
Having already backed away from the vitally important ABM Treaty, having refused to back the Test Ban Treaty, having embarked on the dangerous, escalating, so-called missile defence fiasco, having already budgeted for the refinement of its nuclear weapons, having planned for the development of new nuclear weapons and the horrendous prospect of the weaponization of space, having agreed to a dangerous new provocative nuclear agreement with India, the U.S. is now clearly identifiable as the major threat to world peace and to the very survival of the human race.
AT A CRITICAL MOMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY
SO BIZARRE AS TO BE BEYOND BELIEF*
A Keynote Address by Mel Hurtig
Association of World Citizens Conference
University of San Francisco
August 2, 2005
*words from an article by Robert S. McNamara, Foreign Policy, May/June 2005
In what follows, I acknowledge with gratitude and admiration the invaluable work of Douglas Roche, O.C. formerly Canadas Ambassador for Disarmament and currently Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative. Roches analysis of the May, 2005 Seventh Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty is perceptive and extremely important.
While all of us in this room are fully aware of the dismaying failure of the crucial Seventh Review Conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty which took place in New York in May, I very much doubt if one in a thousand around the world paid attention to the month-long deliberations or have any even vague idea of their importance, or the inevitable tragic consequences of the enormously disappointing Conference results.
Not only was no progress made on the vitally important issues of nuclear disarmament, proliferation, abolishing testing and the continuing upgrading and refinement of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems, but in a shocking betrayal to the worlds aspirations for peace, disarmament and redirecting arms funding to badly-needed humanitarian use, clear-cut widely agreed-to commitments made in the previous 1995 and 2000 Reviews were either ignored or repudiated.
Its impossible not to single out the administration of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for the Conference failure. Time and again the U.S. blocked crucial references to earlier commitments and continued to stubbornly refuse to join the widely-supported Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
While most countries wanted a strengthened Non-Proliferation Treaty, the U.S. clearly wanted it weakened.
And, while many U.S. allies, including seven NATO states called for specific steps to quicken nuclear disarmament, and almost 2,000 NGOs presented thoughtful, passionate pleas and warnings about the growing dangers of proliferation, and while well-reasoned plans for verification and the elimination of nuclear arsenals were presented and overwhelmingly supported, the U.S. frustrated any such progress towards goals almost universally supported.
Having already backed away from the vitally important ABM Treaty, having refused to back the Test Ban Treaty, having embarked on the dangerous, escalating, so-called missile defence fiasco, having already budgeted for the refinement of its nuclear weapons, having planned for the development of new nuclear weapons and the horrendous prospect of the weaponization of space, having agreed to a dangerous new provocative nuclear agreement with India, the U.S. is now clearly identifiable as the major threat to world peace and to the very survival of the human race.
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more on this from Google News
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more on this from Google News
translate into français / english (using google)
http://www.vivelecanada.ca/index.php
posted by carol wolman @ 7:53 AM
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