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State Department considers scrubbing democracy promotion from its mission
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post
Posted: August 6th, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/josh-rogin/wp/2017/08/01...
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has ordered his department to redefine its mission and issue a new statement of purpose to the world. The draft statements under review right now are similar to the old mission statement, except for one thing - any mention of promoting democracy is being eliminated. Former senior State Department officials from both parties told me that eliminating just and democratic from the State Departments list of desired outcomes is neither accidental nor inconsequential. The only significant difference is the deletion of justice and democracy, said Elliott Abrams, who served as deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy during the George W. Bush administration. We used to want a just and democratic world, and now apparently we dont. The change, if it becomes permanent, would sow confusion throughout the ranks of the State Departments civil and foreign service because hundreds of State Department officials work on congressionally funded programs every day that are meant to promote democracy and justice abroad. Tillerson has made several statements and decisions that indicate he plans to lower the priority of democracy and human rights in U.S. foreign policy. In his first speech to his State Department employees, he said promoting American values creates obstacles to pursuing Americas national security interests. In March, he broke tradition by declining to appear personally to unveil the State Departments annual human rights report.
Note: The US State Department under Rex Tillerson also recently moved to shut down a decades-old office designed to seek justice for victims of war crimes. For more along these lines, see concise summaries of deeply revealing government corruption news articles from reliable major media sources.
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