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:
“Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part with it for a cake, at least is not the slave of gross appetite; and shows besides a preference always to be esteemed, of the future to the present moment.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The difference between Pound and Whitman is not between the democrat who in deep distress could look hopefully toward the future and the fascist madly in love with the past. It is that between the woodsman and the woodcarver. It is that between the mystic harking back to his vision and the artist whose first allegiance is to his craft, and so to the reality it presents.”
—Babette Deutsch (1895–1982)