From: tyvtgo@yahoo.com

Date: 12/31/2004 3:59 PM

I must agree with this 100%. Just to listen to this administration on China is enough to make any one vomit.

For reports of China's build-up to be non-existant is also the face of the administration trying to keep all their corporate buddies in the clear to make their millions and billions and at the same time building a dictatorial military to the max that is totally against all the US stands for.

We are wittness to the leaders of the US putting corprorate profits over security of our entire nation.

Now tell me where this guy's morals are and what his cares are. It is not that of the security of America or any other democracy and it's people!!!!!!!!!!!!

Randy Carpenter <laohu@INAME.COM> wrote:
I visited Taiwan back in 1997 shortly after Clinton sent the a carrier battle group through the Taiwan straits to forestall an invasion of Taiwan for holding elections, something the Republicans have convienently forgotten. All the people that I met in Taiwan were very thankful of that action. Comparing that to the recent liberation of the Iraqi oil fields is not so bullyish. I don't think that Dubya would do anything like that considering the guanxi that he has with the CCP.
----- Original Message -----
From: bvranjac <bvranjac@yahoo.com.au>
To: TaiwanFocus@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [TaiwanFocus] Reform U.S. bully image
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 05:08:21 -0000

>
>
>
>
> Wonder why there is so much anti-americanism in the world?
> Wonder why every time Bush goes overseas there are tens of thousands
> of protesters waiting for him, while every time Hu or Wen go
> overseas there are only few stray cats to protest?
> Here is part of the answer from the Taiwan News newspaper.
> My conclusion? Taiwan had better find ways (like third countries
> triangulations) to get advanced weapons from everyone else, not just
> the US, and not be afraid to tell the US to (you can imagine
> what) next time some US officials take the liberty of denigrating
> Taiwan.
> Being seen as a humble US servant that Uncle Sam can humiliate at
> will doesn't do Taiwan any favour.
> Brian
>
> Reform U.S. bully image
>
> 2004-12-30 / Taiwan News, Staff Reporter / By L. Ronald Scheman
>
> The protests in Santiago, Chile, during U.S. President Bush's visit
> for an Asia-Pacific summit last month are a symptom of far deeper
> troubles in Latin America. Relations with the United States have
> seriously deteriorated in the past two years, opening a breach that
> may affect the future of democracy and market economies, and
> possibly derail the long-sought Free Trade Agreement of the
> Americas. Four events have dramatically changed attitudes.
>
> Attitude adjustments
>
> The first was the Argentine financial crisis in early 2002. The
> indifferent U.S. response to the difficulties of a country that had
> committed itself to strong support of the United States in global
> politics stunned the Argentines and raised eyebrows throughout the
> hemisphere.
>
> The second was Iraq. While in itself not directly relevant to inter-
> American issues, it touched sensitive nerves among Latin American
> nations, which have seen their share of U.S. intervention. Their
> historic strategy to constrain U.S. power has relied on
> international institutions. But with Iraq, the U.S. made clear that
> its unilateral interpretation of national interests prevail over
> international commitments.
>
> The third shock took place during the attempted coup in Venezuela in
> April 2002. While every other country in the Americas condemned the
> ill-conceived attempt to oust populist President Hugo Chavez, the
> Bush administration temporized in its support for democratic
> continuity. The widespread interpretation was that the U.S. was
> abandoning the unequivocal commitment to democracy that had long
> been the anchor of its foreign policy. The more serious result was
> that President Chavez has consolidated power, with a strong anti-
> American bias.
>
> The fourth event was in Bolivia in the summer of 2003. When
> democratically elected President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was
> forced to flee widespread unrest, again the U.S. remained aloof.
> That failure to act may come to be seen as one of the worst blunders
> in U.S.-Latin American policy in decades. The Bush administration
> simply watched as groups aligned with the drug mafias became the new
> power brokers. The antidrug network throughout the Andean region
> built with billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money is now in
> grave danger of unraveling.
>
> Implications
>
> The implications of the change in attitudes were plainly visible at
> the Special Summit of the Americas last January. While the Central
> American and Caribbean leaders were positive about prospects for
> their Free Trade Agreement, frustration with the U.S. was clearly
> evident among the South American countries. President Luiz Inacio
> Lula da Silva of Brazil spoke of a "perverse" economic model of the
> 1990s that was supposed to bring financial stability and create
> jobs - but did neither - and "strangles us." President Nestor
> Kirchner of Argentina had stinging comments about a "voracious"
> private sector. Even the comparatively friendly Ecuador and Peru
> complained of a dysfunctional financial system whereby allegedly
> corrupt bankers have taken refuge with impunity in the U.S. and
> Europe.
>
> At the moment, favorable economic winds are blowing for the
> hemisphere. Low interest rates and rising commodity prices fueled by
> surging demand from Asia are giving the region its first current
> account surpluses in decades. While democracy and open markets are
> still preferred, a backlash is growing as a result of pervasive
> corruption among public officials and the failure of economic reform
> to generate jobs. Unemployment is at its highest rate in decades.
> Rampant crime is creating anxiety and insecurity at every level of
> society.
>
> Trouble all around
>
> Many Latin American countries are having a difficult time addressing
> these issues while at the same time trying to overcome their huge
> heritage of poverty. Although this is primarily their
> responsibility, the challenge is formidable. They must build a
> modern infrastructure, devote scarce resources to providing
> security, combat international crime, and at the same time deal with
> the increasing pressure for social action. Debt levels are
> approximating the levels of the 1980s. The only thing saving them is
> low interest rates. As rates rise to normal levels, the inevitable
> financial pressures will become unsustainable.
>
> Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld traveled to Peru in November to
> call for concerted inter-American action to stem the threat of
> terrorist infiltration along the porous drug routes from Latin
> America. Effective cooperation for this purpose, however, is gravely
> handicapped by the current state of relations in the Americas and
> the wide levels of poverty and corruption.
>
> Still time
>
> There is still time for the United States to recover. A good
> beginning is with the Millennium Challenge Account, which Bush
> designed to support committed democracies. Only three countries in
> Latin America presently qualify for assistance because of
> restrictive income criteria. That is a huge mistake. The program
> must be reformulated to address the problems in the Americas where
> drugs, illegal immigrants, and prospective terrorism can flow across
> our borders almost at will.
>
> A second priority should be negotiation of the FTAA. This is now a
> major factor that will unite or divide the hemisphere. When Brazil
> proposed last year that agricultural products be included in the
> trade negotiations, the U.S. had to make a critical decision: Either
> it could consider the Brazilian proposal seriously by adopting a
> more flexible attitude toward the self-imposed 2005 deadline for
> signing the agreement, or it could insist on keeping the deadline
> and accepting a drastically diluted agreement. Bush chose the
> latter. By ignoring the increasingly complex trade environment, the
> US greatly irritated Brazil and many other Latin American countries.
> Any agreement that emerges now will be seriously flawed and will
> satisfy no one.
>
> If we continue to ignore the underlying drift in the hemisphere, we
> may not only fail to achieve the levels of cooperation to combat
> terrorism that Rumsfeld seeks, but also miss the opportunity to get
> a trade agreement as well.
>
>
> L. Ronald Scheman is the author of 'Greater America' and is former
> director-general of the OAS Inter-American Agency for Cooperation
> and Development and former U.S. executive director of the Inter-
> American Development Bank.

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