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Quotational Therapy: Part 117 -- Winston Churchill vs. Kofi Annan.

Two Speeches By World Leaders In Missouri, Sixty Years Apart-

Cue Churchill, comforted by American nuclear (and other) supremacy:

"The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power... No one country has slept less well in their beds because [atomic] knowledge, and the method and the raw materials to apply it, are presently retained in American hands... We should possess so formidable a superiority as to impose effective deterrents upon its employment, or threat of employment, by others."

Enter Kofi, warning against America looking out for American interests:

"None of our global institutions can accomplish much when the U.S. remains aloof... Security must be collective and indivisible... No nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over all others... We all have to recognize, no matter how great our strength, that we must deny ourselves the license to do always as we please..."

Back to Churchill, expounding on Anglo-American exceptionalism:

"We cannot be blind to the fact that the liberties enjoyed by individual citizens throughout the United States and throughout the British Empire are not valid in a considerable number of countries... We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man, which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world, and which through the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English Common Law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence... This is a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States of America... If there is to be a fraternal association of the kind that I have described, with all the strength and security which both of our countries can derive from it, let us make sure that great fact is known to the world, and that it plays its part in steadying and stabilizing the foundations of peace."

And Annan, opining that big mean Anglo-American exceptionalism is no fair:

"Governments must be accountable for their actions in the international arena, as well as in the domestic one... As things stand, accountability between states is highly skewed. Poor and weak states are easily held to account, because they need assistance. But large and powerful states, whose actions have the greatest impact on others, can be constrained only by their own people, working through their domestic institutions... And that makes it very important to organize those institutions in a fair and democratic way, giving the poor and weak some influence over the actions of the rich and the strong... New members should be added [to the Security Council], on a permanent or long-term basis, to give greater representation to parts of the world which have limited voice today."

And... back to Churchill, warning that America must rise to the challenge to defeat enemies of civilization:

"From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent... The Communist parties or fifth columns constitute a growing challenge and peril to Christian civilization... But we should be most unwise not to face them squarely while time remains... I have felt bound to portray the shadow which, alike in the West and in the East, falls upon the world... Our difficulties and dangers will not be removed by closing our eyes to them. They will not be removed by mere waiting to see what happens. Nor will they be removed by a policy of appeasement. What is needed is a settlement, and the longer this is delayed, the more difficult it will be, and the greater our dangers will become. I am convinced that there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness. For that reason, the old doctrine of balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength. If the Western democracies stand together in strict adherence to these principles, no one is likely to molest them. If, however, they become divided or falter in their duty, and if these all-important years are allowed to slip away, then indeed catastrophe may overwhelm us all. Last time I saw it all coming, and I cried aloud to my own fellow countrymen and to the world, but no one paid any attention."

"We must do more, and urgently, to prevent or slow down climate change... When [America] appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused... When power, especially military force, is used, the world will consider it legitimate only when convinced that it is being used for the right purpose – for broadly-shared aims – in accordance with broadly-accepted norms... More than ever, today Americans, like the rest of humanity, need a functioning global system through which the world's peoples can face global challenges together. And in order to function, the system still cries out for far-sighted American leadership in the Truman tradition. I hope and pray that the American leaders of today, and tomorrow, will provide it."

Ah, Kofi Annan, guardian of the Truman legacy. Gatekeeper of Missouri wisdom. Oracle of truth and justice. Pinnacle of greatness and wonder. Kofi Annan, man-- uh, person-- of the century.

Source: Shamelessly ripped off from CFIF.

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Newt Gingrich

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Posted by Will Franklin · 22 December 2006 02:04 PM

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