D_Raay
12-03-2004, 01:32 PM
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=106527
DUBAI, Dec 2 (Bernama) -- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has described the United States as a deficit state living on borrowed money and which owes huge sums of money to the rest of the world.
"If people do not keep giving money to the United States, it will go bankrupt," Dr Mahathir told Dubai newspaper "Gulf News" in an interview that was published Wednesday.
He said the American giant had "feet of clay" and its biggest weakness was the dollar.
Dr Mahathir said Malaysia had avoided losses to its foreign exchange reserves despite the decline in the value of the dollar by building its euro and gold holdings.
"Why are we clinging to the US dollar when we know we are going to lose money?" Dr Mahathir asked.
He said countries opposed to the "bullying" by Washington should use the dollar to force a change in American policies.
Dr Mahathir said Muslim and Arab leaders could use their oil wealth and economic clout to "prevent the kind of bullying that happens in the world".
He suggested that these countries should refuse to accept dollar payments for their exports and insist on being paid in, for example, the euro or yen.
"There are countries which can literally defy the United States and get away with it. (They) can say `we are not dealing with the US dollar. If the United States wants to buy our oil it must pay in euros or yen'," he said.
But such a decision would require political will, the former prime minister told the newspaper when he was in Dubai on a short visit on Tuesday.
"There is a way of doing things, but if you do not have the will the best way of doing things will not happen," Dr Mahathir said.
On the question of democracy in West Asia, Dr Mahathir said the region was not yet ready for democracy.
"Democracy is a process that took Europe almost 200 years to work out. To tell a country that tomorrow you must be democratic is really to destroy that country," he said.
Dr Mahathir criticised the presidency of George W. Bush, saying the United States is the country that needs better leadership.
"We know that his policies have increased the number of people involved in terrorism. Before, the Iraqis were not prone to tying bombs to their bodies and blowing themselves up. A lot of things which were not there before are now very common because of these policies. And he is going to go on like that because he thinks he's right," Dr Mahathir said referring to the ongoing bloodshed in Iraq.
"Americans voted Bush in because he frightened them into thinking they were about to get attacked," he said.
Dr Mahathir said British Prime Minister Tony Blair was using similar tactics to create fear among the British people.
"Now Blair is reporting that there is a plan to attack London very much along the same lines as the attack on 9/11. This idea of frightening people is becoming rampant now," he said.
On the Palestine problem and America's overwhelming support for Israel, Dr Mahathir said: "There was a time when Americans were very level-headed. Now we have a different leadership in America and this leadership is totally in the service of Israel. And that is what is leading us away from solutions."
He said the isolation of the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat by both Bush and Israel leader Ariel Sharon did not help the cause of peace in West Asia.
"Making Arafat out as a terrorist involves a denial of facts because Sharon kills more people than Arafat. So if you want to call Arafat a terrorist call Sharon a terrorist. Arafat was fighting for the things that were taken away from him. Sharon is fighting in order to take what belongs to other people," Dr Mahathir told the paper.
---
The US Government has borrowed more money than it can repay. The interest alone now exceeds all the income tax paid by every American. Congress keeps raising the debt ceiling and Bush keeps borrowing more money to spend on his cronies in the name of "waragainstwhatever". You have only one decision to make; to allow yourself to be dragged down with the government or to stop throwing good money after bad, cut your losses, and let the government collapse all by itself. Because if you think about it, were you to continue to make the sacrifices the government wants to keep itself going, what would you get for it? More of what you have NOW, invasions of privacy, no rights, groped at the airports, and pills forced into your kids until they are ready to die in endless wars.
DUBAI, Dec 2 (Bernama) -- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has described the United States as a deficit state living on borrowed money and which owes huge sums of money to the rest of the world.
"If people do not keep giving money to the United States, it will go bankrupt," Dr Mahathir told Dubai newspaper "Gulf News" in an interview that was published Wednesday.
He said the American giant had "feet of clay" and its biggest weakness was the dollar.
Dr Mahathir said Malaysia had avoided losses to its foreign exchange reserves despite the decline in the value of the dollar by building its euro and gold holdings.
"Why are we clinging to the US dollar when we know we are going to lose money?" Dr Mahathir asked.
He said countries opposed to the "bullying" by Washington should use the dollar to force a change in American policies.
Dr Mahathir said Muslim and Arab leaders could use their oil wealth and economic clout to "prevent the kind of bullying that happens in the world".
He suggested that these countries should refuse to accept dollar payments for their exports and insist on being paid in, for example, the euro or yen.
"There are countries which can literally defy the United States and get away with it. (They) can say `we are not dealing with the US dollar. If the United States wants to buy our oil it must pay in euros or yen'," he said.
But such a decision would require political will, the former prime minister told the newspaper when he was in Dubai on a short visit on Tuesday.
"There is a way of doing things, but if you do not have the will the best way of doing things will not happen," Dr Mahathir said.
On the question of democracy in West Asia, Dr Mahathir said the region was not yet ready for democracy.
"Democracy is a process that took Europe almost 200 years to work out. To tell a country that tomorrow you must be democratic is really to destroy that country," he said.
Dr Mahathir criticised the presidency of George W. Bush, saying the United States is the country that needs better leadership.
"We know that his policies have increased the number of people involved in terrorism. Before, the Iraqis were not prone to tying bombs to their bodies and blowing themselves up. A lot of things which were not there before are now very common because of these policies. And he is going to go on like that because he thinks he's right," Dr Mahathir said referring to the ongoing bloodshed in Iraq.
"Americans voted Bush in because he frightened them into thinking they were about to get attacked," he said.
Dr Mahathir said British Prime Minister Tony Blair was using similar tactics to create fear among the British people.
"Now Blair is reporting that there is a plan to attack London very much along the same lines as the attack on 9/11. This idea of frightening people is becoming rampant now," he said.
On the Palestine problem and America's overwhelming support for Israel, Dr Mahathir said: "There was a time when Americans were very level-headed. Now we have a different leadership in America and this leadership is totally in the service of Israel. And that is what is leading us away from solutions."
He said the isolation of the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat by both Bush and Israel leader Ariel Sharon did not help the cause of peace in West Asia.
"Making Arafat out as a terrorist involves a denial of facts because Sharon kills more people than Arafat. So if you want to call Arafat a terrorist call Sharon a terrorist. Arafat was fighting for the things that were taken away from him. Sharon is fighting in order to take what belongs to other people," Dr Mahathir told the paper.
---
The US Government has borrowed more money than it can repay. The interest alone now exceeds all the income tax paid by every American. Congress keeps raising the debt ceiling and Bush keeps borrowing more money to spend on his cronies in the name of "waragainstwhatever". You have only one decision to make; to allow yourself to be dragged down with the government or to stop throwing good money after bad, cut your losses, and let the government collapse all by itself. Because if you think about it, were you to continue to make the sacrifices the government wants to keep itself going, what would you get for it? More of what you have NOW, invasions of privacy, no rights, groped at the airports, and pills forced into your kids until they are ready to die in endless wars.