President Bush's New World Order Legacy
By Cliff Kincaid (06/02/07)
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.
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.
Cliff Kincaid
http://www.aim.org/aim_column/5501_0_3_0_C/
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