Bush attacks U.S. enemies around the world in wide-ranging UN speech

[NaDiNe]

Bush attacks U.S. enemies around the world in wide-ranging UN speech

7 hours ago

UNITED NATIONS - President George W. Bush announced new sanctions Tuesday against the military dictatorship in Myanmar, accusing it of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that denies basic freedoms.

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma," the president said in an address to the UN General Assembly.

Bush also urged other countries to support what he called the struggle for democracy in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon.

"The people of Lebanon and Afghanistan and Iraq have asked for our help, and every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand with them," Bush said.

"Every civilized nation also has a responsibility to stand up for the people suffering under dictatorship," the president said.

"In Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Iran, brutal regimes deny their people the fundamental rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration" of the United Nations, the U.S. leader said.

While the United States is at war in Iraq, Bush made scant mention of the conflict.

Similarly, he barely mentioned Iran, which Washington accuses of sponsoring terrorism, pursuing nuclear weapons and helping insurgents who are killing U.S. troops in Iraq.

Instead, Bush focused his remarks elsewhere, challenging the UN to uphold its pledge to fight for freedom in lands of poverty and terror.

"The nations in this chamber have our differences, yet there are some areas where we can all agree," Bush said.

"When innocent people are trapped in a life of murder and fear, the declaration is not being upheld. When millions of children starve to death or perish from a mosquito bite, we're not doing our duty in the world. When whole societies are cut off from the prosperity of the global economy, we're all worse off."

"Changing these underlying conditions is what the declaration calls the work of larger freedom and it must be the work of every nation in this assembly," he said.

"This great institution must work for great purposes: to free people from tyranny and violence, hunger and diseases, illiteracy and ignorance and poverty and despair."

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