[lit-ideas] Re: "Money trumps peace"
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:28:23 -0800
Julie wrote, re 'Money trumps peace' that it was a
[d]irect quote from Bush during this morning's press conference,
and commented:
First honest admission I've ever heard from him.
Bush did say this but it was not all he said.
Q: A lot of our allies in Europe do a lot of business with Iran. So I
wonder what your thoughts are about how you further tighten the
financial pressure on Iran, in particular, if it also means economic
pain for a lot of our allies.
BUSH: It's an interesting question. One of the problems, not
specifically on this issue, just in general, that--let's put it this
way: Money trumps peace, sometimes.
In other words, commercial interests are very powerful interests
throughout the world. And part of the issue in convincing people to
put sanctions on a specific country is to convince them that it's in
the world's interest that they forego their own financial interest.
And that's why sometimes it's tough to get tough economic sanctions on
countries, and I'm not making any comment about any particular
country, but you touched on a very interesting point.
You know--so, therefore, we're constantly working with nations to
convince them that what really matters in the long run is to have the
environment so peace can flourish.
--------
While W may, in his heart of hearts, believe that money always does
trump peace, it's clear that in this instance he was referring to the
difficulty of getting some of our allies in Europe to support
sanctions against Iran. For him, this counts as a well-turned phrase.
Robert Paul,
giving folly its due
somewhere south of Reed College
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