Posted on 07/27/2006 12:45:09 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
HALIFAX - The United States and other western countries should be pushing hard for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, along with the insertion of an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said Wednesday.
The Islamic group Hezbollah's tactics are at the root of the latest bloody conflict in the region, but Clinton also questioned the length to which Israel has gone to defend itself. "It's important for us to get some kind of ceasefire now," Clinton said.
"I think this idea of an international force needs to be fleshed out."
His position stands in contrast to the Bush administration and Israel, which have both rejected the idea of a quick truce.
As three days of inconclusive Mideast diplomacy broke up in Rome, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a ceasefire without conditions would allow Hezbollah to regroup and attack Israel or other countries anew.
Clinton said Israel has been looking for an opportunity to "degrade" Hezbollah's military capacity.
"The danger in this Israeli strategy is that Hezbollah attacks with rockets, then hides among civilians," he told 5,000 people at a sold-out event at the Halifax Metro Centre.
"No matter how measured the response is, if you go after them, you're going to kill innocent people."
Hezbollah has tried to do what Hamas has done in the Palestinian territories and said, "when it suits us we'll be a political party and when it suits us we'll go to war," Clinton told former Canadian ambassador to Washington Frank McKenna in a question-answer session following the speech.
Clinton also said Israel went too far in bombing the airport in Beirut.
"I understand why (Israel) wanted to degrade their military capacity, but I question whether it was worth it to wreck the airport because the airport was the symbol of the new Lebanon."
NATO is probably the only international group with the military muscle capable of fielding a peacekeeping force, said Clinton.
"If we're ever going to have a peaceful Middle East, then the peacemakers will have to be protected in a way that won't get them blamed every time they fight back," he said.
Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States, is in Canada this week to talk about bilateral relations.
He's been to Canada 20 times since he left the Oval Office, mostly for speaking engagements.
In his speech Wednesday, he urged Canada to stay the course on universal health care.
He also focused his attention on the depletion of the world's oil reserves.
Last year he sent a stern message to oil-rich Alberta about the effects of global warming.
Clinton said energy-producing nations shouldn't keep their "heads in the sand" and allow the world's climate to change to the point where it could have catastrophic results.
Although organizers of Wednesday's event were tight-lipped about his speaking fee, published sources say Clinton charges $16,000 US for every engagement.
Tickets for the 45-minute speech in Halifax went for $99.
Since leaving the office he held from 1992 to 2000, Clinton has often been in the news for his efforts on behalf of victims of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and global poverty.
And WHO Pray Tell told this slime to open his mouth???? The 'bust' of his old lady???? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Miss ICEBERG herself.....LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Sounds like a blithering idiot to me. Duh, everyone wants a ceasefire, then what, dufus?? What you gonna do about all the rockets stashed away in Lebanon? I thought he was so willing to grab his rifle and die for Israel.
this pig makes me sick.
ROTFLMAO!
Although it took me a while...
I think slick willie should be appointed ambassador to North Korea.
Hey bubba, why don't you go get yourself a paint job?
And people actually paid money to hear this tripe...
Hey Bill, how many innocent people did you kill in Serbia and Kosovo? (Oh, but that's different - you were fighting on the side of Muslims.)
Better their innocent people than ours.
Psst, Bubba, Arafat DIED. US policy CHANGED.
"I think this idea of an international force needs to be fleshed out."
He's always for that option.
"'some kind of ceasefire...'
Awesome quote, Bill, Winston Churchill couldn't have said it better."
Thanks for the laugh.
"Considering the havoc the last two Demorat Presidents have caused in foreign affairs, I fear the next time the voters put another one in office."
I have a dream.
The democrats and the republicans
go to heaven
they get right with God
they get spines
they get brains
they get hearts to rule wisely
a nation called out among the nations
to dispense freedom and justice
in the American way
but not exactly so,
just enough freedom and justice
for the nations to rule themselves aright.
I have a dream
that these same pols
return to earth
and do the job
of being public servants.
I have a dream
that "public servant"
no longer means
being a grifter
a hog at the public expense
No longer means
getting away with murder
or any lesser crime.
I have a dream.
I expect it to happen
Because I know God is
FOR America
and He's got a heart
bigger than all our mistakes.
At the time Sandy Berger was caught stealing classified documents, there was talk that some of them concerned actions by the Clinton Administration to let Islamist fighters into Bosnia and Kosovo, in order to weaken the Serbs. Since then, Bosnia and Kosovo have become a base for Islamist activity against Europe.
See Bosnian Official Links With Terrorism, Including 9/11, Become Increasingly Apparent as Clinton, Clark Attempt to Justify Support of Bosnian Militants
http://128.121.186.47/ISSA/reports/Balkan/Sep1703.htm
Excerpt:
"Despite the clear warnings during the 1990s, however, the US Clinton Administration supported and encouraged the radical Islamists who were bent on attacking the US."
There should be a cease fire! Right after Hezbollah’s surrender, if Israel has to take Iraq & Syria to that then so be it.
He's been to Canada 20 times since he left the Oval Office, mostly for speaking engagements
Little doubt that Tubba holds the same views, but has to keep mum because she's running in NY now. Remember the kiss she planted on Mrs. Arafat? That says it all!
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