Future
The U.S. has at times contemplated whether to terminate the position of U.S. Special Envoy on Northern Ireland. In 2001, then U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell stated in response to questions that:
It is not yet clear whether a special Northern Ireland envoy, such as the role played by former Senator George Mitchell, will be appointed, but the State Department will identify someone in the department to take on "as a primary additional duty" serving in a communication role... if the situation moves in a way that suggests it takes that kind of high-level special envoy involvement.
During the 2008 presidential campaign in the United States, Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama was reported in The Irish Times as having questioned the necessity to keep a U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. This drew a robust response from the Republican Party candidate, Senator John McCain, who strongly backed retaining a U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. The Senator criticised Senator Obama’s position as demonstrating a willingness:
“to toss aside one of the signature diplomatic accomplishments of the Clinton administration and put the progress in Northern Ireland at risk is only further evidence that he is simply not ready to lead."
Read more about this topic: United States Special Envoy For Northern Ireland
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots. True enough, robots do not rebel. But given man’s nature, robots cannot live and remain sane, they become “Golems,” they will destroy their world and themselves because they cannot stand any longer the boredom of a meaningless life.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)
“The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium. What a very few are acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism.”
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)
“The future which we hold in trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people’s children.”
—Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)