A rchive Date
[ 24-09-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/goldstein_sep24.html
The world's advice to America:
Speak softly and forget about carrying any kind of stick, big or small
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN - Toronto Sun
September 24, 2002
As I understand the wise counsel coming from numerous members of the United Nations these days, along with the liberal media and other America-bashers, their collective advice to George Bush and his nation goes something like this:
- You must behave to a higher international standard than has ever been expected of any other country on Earth.
- You should not act in what you perceive to be your own self-interest, or even in self-defence, without consulting us first, even if we act unilaterally in our own interests all the time.
- Your newly-announced "first strike" policy against terrorists and those nations who harbour them is wrong.
- Sept. 11? That was your fault.
- You must wait for another 9/11-type attack on your own soil before engaging in any more pre-emptive strikes of the type we saw (and that some of us supported) in Afghanistan.
- Your enemies - terrorists, rogue states, etc., who have made it abundantly clear they would like nothing better than to explode a nuclear bomb on your shores the next time out - should feel free, by default, to carry out any "first strikes" against you they may like, breaking any laws they see fit.
(Unless, of course, you're lucky enough to stop them by following all the Marquess of Queensberry rules we can throw in your way, to make your job as difficult as possible .)
- You should treat the hunt for international terrorists in much the same way as you would the hunt for, say, a domestic criminal in the U.S., applying the same standards of presumption of innocence, due process, open trials, etc.
- At the UN, you just should just shut up and pay your dues. Saddam Hussein, on the other hand, should feel free to ignore 16 UN resolutions dating back 11 years, stemming from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf war.
Accept advice
- You should be willing to accept advice about the inherent danger in your "first strike" policy from various former superpowers who have all exercised "first strikes" within their own recent pasts.
- You should be the only major power on Earth that does not carry out political assassinations and covert operations.
- On the Mideast, you should just be quiet, unless, of course, it's to talk about the need to establish a Palestinian state.
- You should withdraw your support of Israel, given that we are confident its surrounding Arab neighbours would not then attempt to destabilize the Mideast by trying to drive it into the sea for a fifth time since Israel was created in 1948. (Further, we believe it is your support of Israel which is the key factor creating tensions in the Mideast, as opposed to anything any of its Arab neighbours have ever done.)
All that said, you will be criticized by us whenever you decide to act unilaterally in an attempt to head off a greater disaster in future (Iraq), as well as when you don't (Rwanda).
Actually some of us - please see Canadian Transport Minister (!) David Collenette - believe things were better when the old Soviet Union was around to keep a check on your bullying ways.
It was a tie
- In that vein, we respectfully request you rethink your victory in the Cold War and now declare it a "tie," in the interests of promoting world peace - as we are sure the former Soviet Union would have done had it prevailed instead of you.
- You should do all these things because we believe it is dangerous for you to be the most powerful nation on Earth.
- We are confident the world would be a much more peaceful and safer place were some other nation the most powerful. We just can't agree on which one.
Given all this "wise" advice America has been receiving of late, is it any wonder the world community increasingly complains about growing U.S. unilateralism and isolationism?
After all, the world's advice to America about fighting its war against terror seems abundantly clear.
It is basically a call for the Vietnamization of that war - fighting it in such a way that it cannot possibly be won.
All of which, of course, raises the question of whether America is isolating itself from the international community by making unreasonable demands upon it, or whether what is actually happening is quite the reverse.
Lorrie can be reached at (416) 947-2212, by fax at (416) 947-3228 or by e-mail at lorrie.goldstein@tor.sunpub.com. Or visit his home page.
Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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