US won't stay on top, says Clinton

canberra.yourguide.com.au (downunder) ^ | Monday, 25 February 2002 | AAP (?)

[It'salmosttolate]

US won't stay on top, says Clinton

AAP
Monday, 25 February 2002
Sydney

ACKNOWLEDGING the United States would not be the world's most powerful nation forever might lead to a better approach in its current international relations, former US president Bill Clinton said today.

Speaking at the 2002 World Congress on the Peaceful Reunification of China and World Peace in Sydney, Mr Clinton said this "brief moment in history" when the US had pre-eminent military, economic and political power, would not last.

"This is just a period, a few decades this will last, and I think that all of us who are Americans should think about this and ask ourselves how do we wish this moment to be judged 50 years from now," he said.

"And how would we like to be treated when we no longer have this pre-eminent position and we have to work in a cooperative fashion with others to a far greater extent than we have to do today.

"It seems to me if we would think about it like that it would be much more likely to lead all Americans, without regard of their party, to making the right decisions about how we should approach a lot of these problems that we face."

The former president said he did not want to be critical of the current US Administration.

"I feel that I should be careful in what I say [but] I believe that the [current US] President has been much more interested in international cooperation since September 11th, and I take that to be a very positive sign," Mr Clinton said.

He also said he hoped President George W. Bush's recent visit to Korea would have a positive outcome.

"I certainly have no illusions about the North Korean Government," he said.

". . . But the fact is they ended their nuclear program in 94, in 98 they ended testing of long-range missiles and in 2000 we had the elements of an agreement with them to end their entire missile program."

Mr Clinton's comments come after Mr Bush named North Korea as one country in its "axis of evil" along with Iraq and Iran last month.

Mr Bush visited South Korea for the first time last week. AAP

[jrlc]

When is this guy going to admit he's simply an anti-American communist? Won't he and his leftist wife simply go away???? Enough already.

[Contra]

Why didn't he spout this marxist-leftist rhetoric while he was in office? He did spout other marxist-leftist rhetoric but didn't go this far. Remember, the press referred to him as a "moderate." This is anti-American propaganda you expect to hear from china, russia, europe and democrats. The sad thing is, if democrats and wimpy Republicans keep getting elected, this will come true.

[free from tyranny]

TRAITOR!! Exactly!! This guy was and is no President of the United States of America. He has never believed in the US Constitition. He embodies the same characteristics as the corrupt and dispicable third world leaders that he is telling to be patient, "the US can not continue on much longer..." This man is devoid of hope and all morality. Where Ronald Regan saw " America as the shining city on the Hill", X42 sees the world as pagan orgy.

[Anthem]

He should put on a sweater and talk about malaise.

More likely he'll work up a sweat thinking about mayonaise.

[Dog Gone]

Clinton did his best to transfer technology to China and North Korea in order to make sure that we couldn't remain the world's lone superpower.

If Kyoto had been ratified, it would have transferred American productivity to the rest of the world as well.

Clinton did all he could to make his prophecy come true.

[Anthem]

Only if the Left succeeds in destroying our freedoms here at home. It's freedom that made us the most powerful nation on the planet. His dreams of the "Third Way" fascism for this country, and the rest of the world, are what he's banking on to reduce the US to just another supplicant before some sort of world government.

[jabonz]

Belle Harbor dittos. and bump!

[Osinski]

Oh that brilliant intellectual, Bill Clinton. That paragon of virtue. That selfless crusader for civil rights. That economic genius. Bill, the foreign policy mastermind. I hang on his every word. Now what did he say?

[Texbob]

One thing for certain, Clinton did not stay on top, he will be forever know as White Trash Scumbag.

[USMA '71]

I understand that the late stages of syphillus really eat away a person's ability to reason. I always thought this man had a head full of mush - now I am certain.

[Semper Paratus]

Clinton & Carter - Aim for average.

[Orangedog]

I wouldn't expect anything else from x42.

He sure did his level best to make sure that the U.S. won't be on top for long. Thanks to him and his lackies, the Communist Chinese military now has the information to reproduce the W-80 missile and the neutron bomb.

Is everyone here familiar with what the neutron bomb can do to us? It would allow the Communists to kill tens of millions of us and in a few years when the short lived neutron radiation fades, they could roll right on in and help themselves to our intact resourses and infrastructure. Thanks, Bill!

[Southack]

"This is just a period, a few decades this will last, and I think that all of us who are Americans should think about this and ask ourselves how do we wish this moment to be judged 50 years from now," he said.

NOTE To Clinton: The U.S. has been the world's leading military power since 1864, when the combined Northern and Southern Armies boasted millions of men, gatling machine guns, electric mines, repeating rifles, mass production, aerial balloons, speed-of-light communications via electric telegraph, while Northern and Southern Navies boasted steam-powered iron-clads with revolving turrents and combat submarines - all at a time when state-of-the-art warfare in Europe consisted of infantry with unrifled muzzle-loaders and woodern sailing ships for navies.

Though European history texts deny it to this day, the U.S. military has been the most advanced and most powerful for the last 140 years.

The American economy has been the world's most advanced and largest financial empire since at least 1890, more than a Century ago.

America is more than 40 years ahead of China, India, Japan, and Europe in orbiting a man around the Earth, and more than 3 decades ahead of the rest of the combined world in placing a man on the Moon, so the concept that some other nation "must" surpass us in the next 50 years is absurd. Sure, it could happen, but it's not very likely.

For all of those reasons and more, Clinton is wrong. In fact, not only is he wrong, but he's uninformed and misguided. His left-leaning politics are pretty questionable, too (so far as patriotism is concerned).

[Ceebass]

"It seems to me if we would think about it like that it would be much more likely to lead all Americans, without regard of their party, to making the right decisions about how we should approach a lot of these problems that we face."

I wonder how much the suckers in Sidney paid to hear incomprehensible gibberish like the sentence above.

[Dog Gone]

Excellent points.

The one thing I would add to them is that I believe Clinton, and many on the left, are uncomfortable with the USA being on top. It's just not "fair."

[Southack]

Clinton's central thesis that American world pre-eminence is a "new phenomenon" is conclusively flawed, unless one considers the previous 140 years to be "new".

And that "man" got to be President of this great land. Sheesh, never underestimate the power of the American media to sway the masses with lies and propaganda...

[Beowulf]

Speaking at the 2002 World Congress on the Peaceful Reunification of China and World Peace in Sydney, Mr Clinton said this "brief moment in history" when the US had pre-eminent military, economic and political power, would not last.

Any country resilient enough to survive a Slick Presidency and stay on top is likely to last so into eternity. Jeepers, what a doofus that jerk is, as well as being a very busy USA basher.

[Sara Dorian]

I understand that the late stages of syphillus really eat away a person's ability to reason.

We would've seen x42's symptoms during his nauseous 8 years in orifice; lesions on mucous membranes, fever, patchy loss of hair, rash... but just that horrible nose unless the comments by Monica are reliable. So i agree he is/was a magnet for contracting syphilis but methinks he instead probably has "just" pelvic inflammatory disease, herpes, condyloma, warts, and chlamydia.