The Bush Betrayal And Globalization

I voted for George W. Bush twice. I believed he had America's best interest at heart and viewed him more favorably than his opponents. That is not to say that I have not been very disappointed by him. Most recently is a sense of betrayal.

First disappointment was his leadership and judgement in the execution of the Iraq War. I will not go into the merits of this war. I believe he used too small a force when he initially went in. This needlessly resulted in an increase in cost, in human lives, time spent, and monetary expense. He tried to pull off a war "on the cheap". This policy has proven disastrous.

Our "allies" were not going to be happy with the war; however he conducted it. We know that Europe enjoys the naive belief that all problems can be resolved through diplomacy. We saw that in the lead up to WWII. We saw it in the Balkans. We witnessed it prior to the Iraq War. Most recently we watched their diplomacy fail to end Iran's nuclear ambitions. Europe is a conglomerate of socialist states, far to the left of Americas limited socialism. For them it is much more palpable to capitulate to demands, any demands, than to stand on principle. It is easy to understand, when you realize that for them "principle" is tenuous at best. It is similar to electricity. In their weak state, they are too willing to embrace the "path of least resistance".

In Britain this is seen with the creation of Sharia Law courts right in London itself. It allows Muslims to bypass the British courts and be tried before a Sharia Court, usurping the sovereignty of Britain. We realize those with leftist ideologies tend to be wimps when it comes to putting up a fight. They find comfort in capitulation.

We can see that right here in the U.S. within the Democrats party. They would argue and protest to save a whale before they would defend human life, unless that human life was on death row.

Had we gone into Iraq with an overwhelming force from the beginning and finished the job sooner, we could have been salving the European angst at our unilateralism much sooner.

For me, last Friday came the ultimate Bush betrayal. The G-20 leaders were in Washington, DC attempting to find common solutions to our world financial crisis. It was at this meeting that I believe that President Bush formalized the selling out of America as a economic and military superpower. He has proven himself to be a globalist amongst globalist. While those other leaders hate him, they coyly embraced him.

In a development that attracted the attention of some media, the U.S. agreed at the conference to the establishment of “supervisory colleges” by March 31, 2009, to monitor “all major cross-border financial institutions.” It is the beginning of a new global regulatory body that could eventually impose and collect a currency transactions tax known as the Tobin Tax, named after the late Yale University economist, James Tobin. Such a tax, which could affect stocks, mutual funds, and pensions, could generate hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

But ignored by most of the media was the fact that buried in the “declaration” endorsed by Bush and other leaders meeting on Saturday was (Point number 14) support for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, “the development assistance commitments we have made,” and a reaffirmation of “the development principles agreed at the 2002 United Nations Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, which emphasized country ownership and mobilizing all sources of financing for development.”

This language may sound vague or confusing. However, to those familiar with the U.N. and its conferences and the Millennium Development Goals, it all makes perfect sense. This is a commitment to devote 0.7 percent of the Gross National Product to official foreign aid, a plan envisaged in President-elect Barack Obama’s Global Poverty Act. It will cost $845 billion, to be recovered in whole or part through a global tax. The phrase “all sources of financing for development” is U.N.-speak for global taxes.

In addition to his Global Poverty Act, which could pass Congress in a lame duck session or after President Obama takes office, the Jubilee Act is also being pushed for the benefit of other nations of the world. It would cancel as much as $75 billion in debt owed by foreign countries. The total of the two measures is $920 billion. Since the U.S. will have to borrow the money, the figure will go higher when interest is added.

In a conversation with Margaret Lee, my much older sister, I brought up the issue of the Global Poverty Act. Like so many Americans, she had not heard of it and questioned the validity of my claim. Many Americans will be surprised by this development, and share my sense of betrayal.

America's mainstream media are part of the complicity to impose this stealth globalization on our citizenry before they know what is going on. I believe the ball began rolling decades ago at the behest of the Trilateral Commission and more recently under the direction of the Bilderberg Group. This a global effort that is bypassing "voters" worldwide.

It is no coincidence that one of Obama’s personal representatives to the G20 meeting was former Republican Rep. Jim Leach, a left-winger who not only gave a speech backing Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention but is a long-time collaborator of the World Federalist Movement. This is a group that favors global taxes to finance world government.

Leach is clearly hoping for an appointment from Obama as the new U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, where he could help implement the Millennium Development Goals.

To demonstrate how the media view all of this, Washington Post columnist Sebastian Mallaby on Thursday devoted a column headlined “Supersize the IMF” to the idea that the global financial institution known as the International Monetary Fund should get a massive infusion of American taxpayer dollars as well. He argued that the U.S. and other governments should triple their financial commitments to the IMF.

Mallaby, who doubles as director of the Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, didn’t put a price tag on this. But it was clear that he believes the more money the better. “A bigger IMF should be on its [the Obama Administration’s] agenda, he said.

Meanwhile, now that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has admitted that his $700-billion plan didn’t work out as planned, some in the media are acknowledging that they helped stampede the Congress into passing it.

On his CNN Reliable Sources show, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post asked his colleague Steven Pearlstein, “Wasn’t there a prevailing drumbeat that this package had to pass?” The reply: “I was, I guess, part of that drumbeat. It did have to pass.” Pearlstein added, “You know, the Congress and the government had to do something to get liquidity moving in the financial system. There’s no playbook for how to do this in a situation like this. People are making it up as they go along. And so we really shouldn’t be surprised that they tried something, it doesn’t work. They try something else, maybe it works. They’re throwing a lot of darts at the wall.”

But since it didn’t work and Paulson changed the plan, Kurtz asked, “Where is the journalistic outrage here?” It’s a good question. The only outrage I can find is coming from the taxpayers.

For his part, Pearlstein’s new column, “Toward a New International Capitalism,” includes no apologies over his central role in what has happened. Instead, he hails the arrival of a new era in which America “can no longer expect to dominate the institutions of international finance and will have to share power and influence with rapidly developing countries…”

In other words, America has been cut down to size and the beneficiaries are those who were always jealous of her wealth and power. The result will not only be less U.S economic power but the diminution of American military power. One will inevitably follow the other, especially if more U.S. manufacturing industries go bankrupt.

This is not “international capitalism.” It’s the victory of global socialism.
We are witnessing the leveling of the global playing field. A field where all nations and peoples will be on equal footing, irregardless of personal effort, and lacking any reward.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". - Karl Marx

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