(Colin) Powell: U.S. needs to restore its welcoming image

[sabra]

Source: farmington independent


NEW ORLEANS – America needs to restore its image as the land of opportunity, rather than tightening its borders so that the world’s best and talented won’t come, former U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell said here Monday.

...

“The government has to protect its citizens, and that’s what we did,” Powell said as keynote speaker to the American Farm Bureau Federation annual convention in New Orleans. “We’re a lot safer now than we were before 9/11.”

But Powell said he went to President Bush about 1-1/2 years later and told him that “we can’t go too far because we have now paid too high a price for these new procedures.”

So many youngsters around the world, especially Muslim youth, stopped applying to attend U.S. universities, he said. People abroad with illnesses are not trying to seek treatment at the Mayo Clinic, and they aren’t coming to recreational facilities in the United States, Powell said. “We are starting to create an impression with the rest of the world that says, ‘we really don’t want to welcome you here anymore.”

That’s bad, he argues, because students that used to come here are going to France, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, “because it’s obvious you can get a quality education at these places now, and you don’t have to go to a place that seems not to welcome you, or hassles you at the airport.”

Read more: http://www.farmingtonindependent.com/articles/index.cfm?id=6476§ion=mnnews,Minnesota%20News&property_id=11

[treestar]

1. For every one who claims that immigrants "steal" jobs

There are several Americans who lose business because when we don't get as many students and visitors.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

2. Suurre, we're a lot safer than we were before 9/11. Ironic that he said that in NOLA.

MKJ

[boricua79]

3. who is HE kidding?

he joined the administration that made the U.S. more unwelcome than it already was.

With the exception of a few people who I cherish and treasure as a friends, most of the people I meet in the United States tend to be somewhere in the range from mildly ignorant/apathetic about foreigners to outright racists/xenophobes. Most are somewhere in the range of mildy ignorant to closet xenophobes who give you the silent treatment.

The people of this nation make the rest of the world not want to be here...and the ruling class fans that ignorance and xenophobia through its incessant fearmongering about the world. It's a vicious cycle. Not many are innocent here. Many voted for this right-wing government because they WANTED a government that was anti-immigrant and anti-tolerance. They wanted the imposition of WASP order...and anything else was to be stamped out, if not tolerated with closet xenophobia. That's how I feel in this nation. Thank the few white progressives who try to break out of that barrier of xenophobia, but they're a teaspoon in a sea of ignorance. My experience, as a Latino man in the United States, it's that the people got what they deserved. They have the government they voted for (or allowed to steal the election). Time and time again, polls show Americans voting for outrageous right-wing ideas. We can't even have decent healthcare...we can't understand that our education system is broken. Our national infrastructure is crumbling. Our environment is getting polluted, and we can't solve the solvable energy crisis with more investment in renewable energies. And the Left is so timid, it can't even find a place in the national discussion, let alone change anything. This is what a country looks like when it doesn't have an organized progressive movement to mobilize people into political office and to effect rational, human solutions to our problems. The Scandinavians don't seem to be wrestling with THESE issues...and when they do, they do it in a heck of a more rational way than we do.

People in other countries can't understand why we're backwards in our policies, and they'd rather keep away. And I don't blame them. Why come to the U.S. to deal with abusive cops in NYC, when you're being a tourist? Why come and visit the Southwest of the U.S. (if you're Latino), and get profiled for being a Mexican illegal? Why? I would NEVER pick the U.S. a vacation spot. Heck, I only live here for the fact that, because I was born a U.S. citizen, it's just easier legally, politically, culturally, linguistically, and family-wise to remain here. If I had European citizenship, connections in Europe, and the possibility of a job, I'd leave here and go to Spain.

Sorry for the rant people, but I hate to read politicians cry NOW about our national image. They screwed it up...and not many here did anything to stop that damage either.

[LynnTheDem]

4. "we're a lot safer now"...well gee, powell, that's strange!

6 Years After 9/11, the Same Threat
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/washington/18assess.html

Terror threat higher since 9/11, report says
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/09/24/news/terror.php

Secret report: Terror threat worst since 9/11 - Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/25/nterr25.xml

Senior U.S. officials confirmed Monday that a classified intelligence report does conclude that the Iraq war has worsened the terror threat
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15004211 /

Terrorism threat worse in wake of Iraq war
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1543486.htm

Iraq War Blamed for Increased Terrorist Threat
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/11107

Iraq War Increased Terror Threat: Global Poll
Most people in 33 out of 35 countries worldwide believe that the US-led invasion of Iraq has increased the threat of terrorism,
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805227.php

Iraq war could create a new bin Laden
http://www.upi.com/Security_Terrorism/Analysis/2006/01/19/iraq_war_could_create_a_new_bin_laden/6448/

US Figures Show Sharp Global Rise In Terrorism
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601623.html

United States: Losing the War on Terror
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/terrorwar/analysis/2004/aprilharder.htm

Evidence that the US May Be Losing the Global War on Terror
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1501

US: Three Years On, War on Terrorism Looks Like a Loser
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=25437

”We have a stronger jihadi presence in Iraq today than in March 2003,” noted Roger Cressey, the former director for Transnational Threats in Bush's National Security Council at a briefing at the libertarian Cato Institute earlier this week.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0911-01.htm

Global terror attacks triple
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0428/dailyUpdate.html

Worldwide terrorism-related deaths on the rise
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5889435%20 /

US Losing the War on Terror in Iraq; The invasion of Iraq has increased, not decreased, the threat of terrorist attack
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article2629.html

Occupation Made World Less Safe, Pro-War Institute Says
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/terrorwar/analysis/2004/0526iissreport.htm

Iraq Invasion Hurt War on Terror
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0719-10.htm

Musharraf: World more dangerous because of Iraq War
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/25/03544/7945

Blix Says Iraq War May Have Worsened Terror Threat
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0319-02.htm

Poll: Aussies, Brits, Italians say Iraq war increased terrorism
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1576/5027215.html

Iraq intervention increased threat of terrorism ("intervention"??? What exactly was being "intervened"???)
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0409/S00127.htm

UK Government; Iraq war 'increased terror threat'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3451239.stm

Iraq war has swollen ranks of al Qaeda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1063717,00.html

US State Department Corrects Report to Show Rise in Terrorism
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5264512 /

Iraq has become a terrorist spawning ground, CIA admits
http://www.skyhen.org/Focus/iraqcoverage/cia_iraq_conflict_feeds_international_terror_threat.php

Must be everyone else around the world is lying and/or stupid, coz of course powell & the bushbot cabal wouldn't & aren't!

[rockybelt]

5. Powell ius just another

republican ass-bag that thinks he can clear himself of his war crimes by this bull shit he is spouting now.

There is no doubt that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Stated by Powell with Tenet sitting right behind him. Why was tenet behind him? Because he KNEW the bull shit he was spouting was exactly that. Bull shit!

He is an ass bag that does not deserve to be heard at all. Just thrown in jail with the rest of them.

[frog92969]

6. Oh please Mr Powell

When you went to the UN to beg to get your master's war on you knew the "intel" was from the Cheney Instigation Administration. THAT was the time to stand up and tell the world what sick, greedy bastards resided in the Blight House. BEFORE we went against the UN's common sense and decency and started killing all the innocent people for sitting on too much oil.

“We are starting to create an impression with the rest of the world that says, ‘we really don’t want to welcome you here anymore.”
Yeah, here as in the planet.
Bite me Powell!

[conspirator]

7. Give Powell a chance. He was receiving orders. He didn't actually search for the WMDs

himself. It's not easy to leave the Bush mafia once you are in, but he did it nevertheless

[CyberPieHole]

12. Feh...

I don't buy it. Besides he hasn't been speaking out against bush...he's only trying to resurrect his reputation. Powell needs to be in prison with rummy and all the rest of them.

[liberal N proud]

8. Sorry Mr. Powell

You can't go around helping to start wars then proclaim we need to rebuild our image.
You are guilty of allowing this regime to invade and occupy Iraq under false pretense with false evidence.

Go to Jail, go straight to Jail and do not pass go. Then go to Hell.

[Joe Bacon]

9. Too little and too late.

Colin Powell could have stopped this insanity by resigning as Secretary of State. Nope, that sellout went to the UN and lied because he craved power. And he's going down in history as one of the biggest assholes of all time.

[CyberPieHole]

10. Colin Powell is a grade A asshat...

Why didn't he think about this prior to making his speech at the UN? I'm sure his apologists will whine that "he was just following orders"...but Powell followed his orders all too well.

[ckramer]

11. Colin please shut up

LOL

[hatrack]

13. I'll be right with you, Colin - just let me finish this retinal scan on this tourist first . . .

:eyes:

[Javaman]

14. eat shit, powell, you are one of the enablers that got us into this mess. nt