US invasion of Iraq was groundless
Victor Yenikeev <http://english.ruvr.ru/by_author/2261497/index.html> Sep 2, 2010 17:34 Moscow Time The head of the Pentagon Robert Gates. Photo: EPA <http://english.ruvr.ru/data/2010/09/02/1217379433/3highres_00000401566714.jpg> The US pretext for invading Iraq was groundless and far-fetched. Baghdad did not have weapons of mass destruction. The head of the Pentagon said these words when talking to journalists in the Iraqi town of Ramadi. Speaking frankly, Minister Gates disclosed the secret of Polichinelle. He has only confirmed what Moscow has been saying all along, from the first day of the US war in Iraq. The head of the Pentagon has not said anything new. Already during the presidency of George Bush Junior, everybody realized that Washington intentionally lied to the world and deliberately violated the UN Charter. Now the problem is whether representatives of the American political and military elite have learned any lessons from their adventure in Iraq, whether they are ready, now and in the future, to respect international law, to take the interests of other countries into consideration and to recognize the principle of polycentrism. The Russian leaders, certainly, notice positive changes in our relations with the USA after President Barack Obama came to the White House. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov mentioned this on the 1st of September, speaking to the students of the Foreign Ministry University in Moscow. He also noted in his speech that Russia does not fully agree with the new US national security strategy. In our Minister’s opinion, this strategy contains too many traditional elements of foreign policy philosophy that are outdated now. We need a more stable basis for providing equal security on the Euro-Atlantic territory, as there are still many people in the West who are hostages of old instincts and prejudice. Well-known American political scientist Stephen Cohen admitted this fact in his interview for the Bulgarian newspaper “Trud”. He believes that Barack Obama’s Administration does not want to reconsider the main principles of US foreign policy and pursues a policy of double standards concerning Russia. Thus, the NATO military machine has considerably moved eastwards, close to the Russian border, while Washington denies Russia the right to have special relations with the former Soviet republics. We ought to fill our relations with serious meaning, Foreign Minister Lavrov emphasized. Moscow would like NATO to be ready to participate in equal cooperation with other players, Russia included, and to respect international law, first of all, the UN Charter. http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/09/02/18464443.html _______________________________________________ News mailing list News@antic.org http://lists.antic.org/mailman/listinfo/news
