Developments Overseas:
US suffers successive foreign policy setbacks

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The US is increasingly being isolated in the international community due to its unjust foreign policy, especially concerning the Middle East. The Bush government suffered a series of blows in the last few weeks in the legal, political and diplomatic fields both within and outside the US.mga nakaraang linggo sa larangang ligal, pulitikal at diplomatiko kapwa mula sa loob at labas ng bansa.

This year, however, the US could do nothing in the face of stronger opposition by council members to another year�s extension of immunity. During the council�s meeting on June 24, UN secretary-general Kofi Annan emphatically stated that an extension was out of the question in the face of expos�s of abuses by American troops on Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib.

In particular, the council strongly opposed the US� request to have its immunity renewed on a yearly basis �for as long as necessary.� Annan condemned the move as an attempt to make permanent a temporary contingency measure.

Meanwhile, within the US, there now is official admission that the war on Iraq was baseless. A report released by the US Senate Intelligence Committee on July 10 states that the intelligence information upon which the decision to invade Iraq was based was �flawed.� The report further states that the US� conclusions concerning Iraq�s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were either overstated or unsupported by intelligence reports. The Bush government used the purported WMD to justify its aggression on Iraq.

According to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a ranking member of the committee, the errors identified �rank among the most devastating losses and intelligence failures in the history of the nation.�

The US Senate report has been buttressed by the results of an official inquiry in the United Kingdom. On July 14, the commission that conducted the British inquiry concluded that Iraq did not have chemical and biological weapons when it was attacked by the US-led coalition. The commission stated that British intelligence information regarding this matter was �flawed, unreliable and incomplete.�

21 July 2004
English Edition

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