Eis het ontslag van Jozias van Aartsen

Geheugensteuntje nodig voor jouw 'hulp' van de VS?

"Onderstaand bericht maakt duidelijk dat de donorconferentie in Parijs voor hulp aan Libanon wat de VS betreft niet zo zeer gaat om het vooral getroffen Zuiden van Libanon te helpen maar om militaire hulp te bieden aan de huidige regering. Verder zijn de leningen bedoelt om een neoliberale politiek onder andere door middel van privatiseringen af te dwingen. Het is dan ook een gotspe dat de conferentie zou gaan over wederopbouw zoals ook in bijna alle mainstream media wordt gesteld. De VS en Soennitisch heersers doen precies wat ze Iran en Syrië de hele tijd verwijten. Libanon heeft een staatsschuld van ongeveer 30 miljard euro vooral opgebouwd na de burgeroorlog door opeenvolgende regeringen die vooral de vrije markt omhelsden. De bewindvoerders van die regeringen behoren meestal tot de rijkste van Libanon zo ook hun families. Nieuwe leningen en 'giften' zullen deels gebruikt worden om vorige leningen af te lossen. U.S. To Pledge $770 Million in Aid to Lebanon The U.S. will pledge 770 million dollars in new aid to Lebanon as part of a major international drive to rebuild the country and bolster the embattled government of Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday. Rice said the package, to be formally unveiled Thursday at an international donors' conference in Paris, would bring total U.S. assistance to Lebanon to more than a billion dollars since a devastating 34-day war last July and August between Israel and Hizbullah. "The president will request of the Congress 770 million dollars in support for Lebanon," she told reporters accompanying her from Washington to Paris. She said about two-thirds of the new aid would go to strengthen Lebanon's security forces with training and equipment, and to fund reconstruction projects. The remaining 250 million dollars will be direct assistance to Saniora's administration, which has just unveiled a controversial five-year economic reform plan to cope with rebuilding efforts and more than 41 billion dollar public debt. Before the war, annual U.S. aid to Lebanon averaged between 30 and 40 million dollars per year, officials said. Lebanese officials have said they need several billion dollars to rebuild villages and infrastructure damaged in the Israeli offensive sparked by Hizbullah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid in July. Rice linked the latest U.S. aid, and other pledges expected during Thursday's 30-nation donors meeting, to efforts to strengthen Saniora's government in a power struggle with Hizbullah and allied Syrian-backed parties in Lebanon. Hizbullah-led protests against Saniora and his reform plan erupted into violence Tuesday that left five people dead and 133 wounded. "Yesterday's events if anything make more important a message from the international community that it supports the democratically elected government of Lebanon," said Rice, who is scheduled to meet with Saniora early Thursday. She called the protests and violence "irresponsible" and "an effort to provoke, an effort to intimidate" Saniora. Hizbullah has denounced Saniora as a puppet of the West and is seeking to topple his government or force a power-sharing deal that would leave Hizbullah and its allies with veto power in cabinet. U.S. President George Bush accused Syria in his State of the Union speech Tuesday of using Hizbulah to reassert its control over Lebanon, which Damascus occupied for decades until popular protests forced it to withdraw its forces in 2005. Rice said she hoped the pro-Syrian camp "would not want to push Lebanon into open conflict and to kill lots of innocent Lebanese to pursue their political goals." The United States has already pledged 231 million dollars in government aid to Lebanon since the summer war, including 39 million dollars to provide vehicles, communications equipment, night vision goggles and training to Lebanon's army. Under the terms of a U.N.-brokered ceasefire that ended the fighting, the army deployed for the first time in more than 20 years in south Lebanon along Israel's border and also began patrolling the frontier with Syria. A senior official accompanying Rice said the direct aid will be tied to "benchmarks" in the implementation of Saniora's five-year reform plan, which calls for raising some taxes and privatizing the country's electricity and mobile phone sectors. Another 280 million will provide training, equipment and small arms to the army and police, while 184 million will help fund international peacekeepers deployed in south Lebanon under the U.N. ceasefire, the official said. A group of U.S. corporate leaders, including the chief executive of Intel, will also on Thursday announce major workforce training and telecommunications infrastructure investment projects for Lebanon, another official said. Rice said she was confident Saniora had the "mettle" to follow through on the reforms, unlike a plan announced by Beirut at the last Paris donors' conference in 2002 which never took effect.(AFP) Beirut, 25 Jan 07, 00:03 De 'hulp' van de VS aan LibanonUNITED STATES: $770 million, conditional on approval of U.S. Congress. A senior U.S. official said it would include $250 million in cash transfers tied to economic reforms. A further $220 million will fund Lebanese military equipment and training. $184 million goes to support the international peacekeeping mission, $60 million to train and equip security forces, $50 million to fund reconstruction projects and $5.5 million for demining.Van de 770 miljoen dollar gaat dus 50 miljoen naar daadwerkelijk wederopbouw projecten en 5.5 miljoen naar het opruimen van mijnen.De volledige lijst van donors volgen persburo Reuters:Paris 3: List of Lebanon aid donors January 25, 2007# SAUDI ARABIA: Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said Saudi Arabia would give $1.0 billion to help development projects and a further $100 million in budget support.# UNITED STATES: $770 million, conditional on approval of U.S. Congress. A senior U.S. official said it would include $250 million in cash transfers tied to economic reforms. A further $220 million will fund Lebanese military equipment and training. $184 million goes to support the international peacekeeping mission, $60 million to train and equip security forces, $50 million to fund reconstruction projects and $5.5 million for demining.# ARAB MONETARY FUND: $700 million over the next five years.# WORLD BANK: $700 million in additional funding to support implementation of the government's program. Up to $400 million could be made available this year.# FRANCE: 500 million euro ($649.4 million) loan "with very favorable conditions". # EUROPEAN UNION: Almost 400 million euros of additional aid in the form of grants and loans.# EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK: 960 million euros divided into 400 million euros for priority investments, notably in the electricity sector, and 560 million for the private sector.# UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: $300 million.# ARAB INVESTMENT BANK: $250 million.# ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT BANK: Financial package of $250 million for social services and basic infrastructure.# BRITAIN: $48 million to U.N. agency dealing with refugees in Lebanon and $115 million over the next four years for reconstruction projects with no conditions.# BELGIUM: 20 million euros.# OMAN: $10 million.# ITALY: 120 million euros, made up of 65 million euros in low interest rate credits and a gift of 55 million euros. It also offered a suspension of Lebanon's commercial debt repayments to Italy.# SPAIN: 35 million euro grant in 2007-2008.# BRAZIL: $1 million donation.# MALAYSIA: $1 million, prepared to discuss rescheduling existing bond maturities.# SWEDEN: 4.5 million euros, all channeled through the United Nations Development Program.# AUSTRIA: 1 million euros to help improve living conditions and for economic reforms# SLOVENIA: 100,000 euros in 2007.# GREECE: 5 million euros for reconstruction.# IRELAND: 2 million euros, as grant with no conditions.# GERMANY: About 103 million euros, including about 63 million euros for reconstruction work and 40 million euros for equipping security forces on the Lebanese border.# NORWAY: $15 million for activities including coastal management, the petroleum sector, support for Palestinian refugees and work against cluster munitions.# EGYPT: $44 million for rebuilding infrastructure.# CANADA: 20 million Canadian dollars ($17 million).# DENMARK: $3.5 million, focused on improving lives of people in south Lebanon.# SOUTH KOREA: $1 million.# CHINA: 30 million yuan ($3.86 million).# AUSTRALIA: 5 million Australian dollars ($3.9 million) for U.N. and related relief activities, planning to allocate a further A$2 million to high priority community action programs. "

Is dat waar we op zitten te wachten? Nog meer wapengekletter? Waarvan bewezen is dat het nog nooit iets heeft opgelost? Als de VS de wereld eens wat minder zou hebben 'geholpen', dan zou de wereld een stuk vreedzamer zijn geweest sinds WOII. Het zijn de VS die Hoessein's Iraq hebben bewapend, het zijn de VS die de Taliban hebben bewapend. Om nog maar te zwijgen over Panama, Cuba, Cambodja, Korea, Vietnam, etc., etc..