Friday, October 27, 2006

Dem Says Australia 'A Nuclear Threat'

Dem Says Australia 'A Nuclear Threat'
By Geoff Elliott

Harold Ford, a handsome 36-year-old from Tennessee, has become one of the sensations of the mid-term elections in the US and a reason why Democrats are a good chance of winning back control of the US Congress for the first time in 12 years.

But if Mr Ford, already a US congressman, wins his bid to become a more powerful senator, Australia had better watch out. Because according to Mr Ford, Australia has an interest in nuclear weapons and is part of the broader nuclear threat to the US.
In a speech to county government officials yesterday in Knoxville, Mr Ford - listed in People magazine in 2001 as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world - electrified the audience, as he does everywhere he speaks.

(snip)

If victorious on November 7, Mr Ford will be the first popularly elected black from the South to take a seat at the exclusive 100-member Senate.

His skilled oration on domestic politics may be flawless, but his grip on foreign policy is error-prone. Yesterday he stumbled into gaffes on the North Korean nuclear tests and then mentioned Australia in the same breath as rogue nations wanting to go nuclear.

"Here we are in a world today where more countries have access to nuclear weapons than ever before," Mr Ford said, adding that when he left college in 1992 he thought the nuclear age had come to an end "and America would find ways to eliminate the number of chances that a rogue group or a rogue nation would get their hands on nuclear material".

"Today nine countries have it - more than ever before - and 40 are seeking it, including Argentina, Australia and South Africa," he said.

Mr Ford was referring to the nine known nuclear weapon states: the US, the UK, Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and now North Korea. He said this made the US less safe because "more countries have nuclear weapons today which means the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the wrong hands has increased dramatically".

On North Korea, he claimed Pyongyang had conducted two nuclear tests, the first of which he said occurred on July 4. This confuses the ballistic tests Pyongyang carried out on that date with the single nuclear test earlier this month.

The gaffes were lost on the audience and he was given a rousing standing ovation from Democrats and Republicans alike. Any chance of clarifying Mr Ford's remarks with the man himself was impossible as minders shielded any international media from asking questions, ushering Mr Ford away.

"You don't win us any votes," said his spokeswoman. And she might have added that it also means he is insulated from pesky questions probing his limitations on enunciating a foreign policy involving a trusted ally.

more...

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20656046-2,00.html

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does Mr. Ford know that both England and France have nuclear weapons? We've had a number of wars with England. Although we've had no direct conflict with France, the same can be said for Australia.

Of the nations in the world, Australia has consistently aligned with the US during even unpopular wars, including during the Korean War and the Vietnam War. While Britain has a larger presence in Iraq, Australia has provided both support of all kinds, and has maintained their support in the face of some of the worst anti-American rhetoric ever. Their current government has faced stiff political challenges over its support for Bush and the Iraq War but they have not kowtowed to the cut-and-run useful idiots.

But who am I kidding? This simply shows that Ford isn't even fit for office in Tennessee, much less for a seat in body as powerful as the US Senate.

Adding one more ignorant Democrat to those ignorant Democrats already in place spells nothing but doom for this country.

Republicans who are still pouting with the Bush Administration for its lack of perfection better wake up before November 7th before their pettiness destroys this country.

7:16 PM  
Blogger VerityINK said...

Thanks for fleshing out this argument into it's full flower (with your keen grasp of history). I saw his statement, threw up my hands and was content to wonder what the Sam hill was the matter with him!

7:43 PM  

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