Bush's Millennium: Entrenched Poverty Is USA's Goal

Remember Live8? Remember all that sweet talk about tackling poverty around the world? Remember how Bush was reluctantly brought on board by a fervent Tony Blair, pledging to increase aid to developing nations etc etc etc???

Well, forget it. It was just for show. John Bolton, Bush's new man in the UN, has shown his hand:

The US has only recently introduced more than 750 amendments that would eliminate new pledges of foreign aid to impoverished nations, scrap provisions that call for action to halt climate change and urge nuclear powers to make greater progress in dismantling their nuclear arms. At the same time, the Administration is urging UN members to strengthen language in the 29-page document that calls for tougher action to combat terrorism, promote human rights and democracy and halt the spread of the world's deadliest weapons.

Steve Clemons at Talking Points Memo has a leaked PDF copy of the revised memo (warning: big download) and provides this summary:

In short, the document does the following:

~ knocks out entirely the Millennium Development Goals

~ continues to undermine collective efforts against climate change

~ knocks out targets and timetables for all goals and objectives

~ guts any efforts toward further disarmament objectives and focuses exclusively on non-proliferation, while both had always been important objectives in the past

~ strikes the section that states that countries will use force only as last resort

~ and oddly, strikes out the need to establish a legal definition of terrorism, which the Bush administration has previously stated is a requirement before proceeding towards a U.N. Convention on Terorrism.

The Millenium Summit was always intended as a showcase of the UN's capacity to make a real difference in the world.

Bush & Co always complain that the UN is ineffective (that's why we gotta do the pre-emptive war thing, remember? Coz them UN dicks couldn't even find them WMDs...) yet they do everything possible to shackle it, embarrass it and render it useless. A failed Millenium Summit will be a major embarrassment to Kofi Annan and his staff. It will also entrench poverty in developing nations for generations to come, ensuring US economic domination of the planet continues unabated: Bush & Co could not be happier.

Well done, Mr Bolton. You must be real proud.