A rchive Date
[ 02-03-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
|
[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/corbella.html
Bush missed diplomatic boat
Compared to U.S. president, Chretien looks like dean of international relations
By LICIA CORBELLA - Calgary Sun
March 2, 2003
Diplomacy is defined in the Collins dictionary as the conduct of the relations between nations by peaceful means; skill in the management of international relations and tact or skill in dealing with people.
This past Monday, David Frum - a former columnist with this news chain and more recently a speech writer for U.S. President George W. Bush - delivered an interesting speech in Calgary about his time at the White House.
Frum, who is flogging his new book: The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush, criticized Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Liberal government for its puzzling "style of diplomacy" which received hearty applause from the sympathetic crowd, including me.
"Canada has played a strained and vacillating part" in the war against terrorism, said Frum.
"Canada is getting ready to back the American point of view, but it has done this so gracelessly it has made sure that it will get no credit at all."
Frum is right about Chretien, but his argument lost credibility with his lack of critical focus on his former boss. While it's true our prime minister deserves criticism in ample amounts on virtually everything he does, including his non-diplomacy - compared to Bush, Chretien looks like the grand dean of diplomacy.
Never in the history of the U.S. has there been a president who has made and uttered so many diplomatic gaffes as George W. Bush.
More importantly, when Chretien makes a diplomatic blunder - or one of his MPs or aides do - as happened Wednesday with Carolyn Parrish saying "Damn Americans, I hate those bastards," such poor form really only hurts us - which is certainly bad enough.
But when Bush makes a slip of the lip - or worse, an idiotic foreign policy proclamation - it holds the potential of destabilizing the entire planet. And that is the case today.
When Bush declared that North Korea, Iran and Iraq formed an Axis of Evil - a phrase penned by Frum himself - the whole world cringed and wondered what kind of diplomatic morons the world's most powerful man was surrounding himself with.
And sure enough, look what's happened to North Korea. It's leadership has been awakened and gained legitimacy with its starving people for continuing to arm itself to the teeth.
It rightly believes that the axis of evil comment is a declaration of war and has therefore announced that it is abandoning its promise to stop its nuclear weapons program.
Why would it do otherwise? Of the three countries in the supposed "axis of evil," the weakest militarily is Iraq and that's the one the U.S. is going to attack. What message does that send the world?
Be strong and avoid attack, be weak and risk getting bombed back to the Middle Ages, like Iraq.
It is only because of the belief that North Korea already has nuclear bombs in its possession that Washington is walking and talking more softly around this dangerous, closed regime. But not Bush himself.
No, name calling is the name of the game for him.
Last year he called North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, a "pygmy" - and in so doing managed to insult most short Asians, not to mention pygmies.
Then he said: "I loathe Kim Jong Il - I've got a visceral reaction to this guy ..."
Doesn't exactly fit the definition of diplomacy does it?
Then there are the high-level administration figures who refuse to take nuclear weapons off the table when discussing a possible attack against Iraq.
Now if you were the leader of a country traditionally considered hostile by the U.S., what would be the first action-item on your to-do list? If it wasn't to procure a nuclear weapon as soon as possible, then these leaders' sanity would have to be seriously questioned.
After all, it's worked for North Korea, hasn't it? Surely, it is Saddam Hussein's biggest regret.
Speaking of the Bush administration's disastrous diplomacy record, West Virginia Democratic Senator Robert Byrd delivered a humdinger of a speech on the Senate floor Feb. 12.
"This administration has turned the patient art of diplomacy into threats, labelling and name-calling of the sort that reflects quite poorly on the intelligence and sensitivity of our leaders and which will have consequences for years to come," said Byrd.
"Calling heads of state pygmies, labeling whole countries as evil, denigrating powerful European allies as irrelevant - these types of crude insensitivities can do our great nation no good."
Byrd pointed out that the U.S. doctrine of pre-emption and its "senselessly bellicose language" has increased "the global race to join the nuclear club.
"The idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future - is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self-defence. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter."
When it comes to diplomacy, Chretien is clearly a lightweight.
But for such criticism to come from Frum - who penned the destabilizing and undiplomatic phrase "axis of evil" - is rather galling and would be funny were it not so delusional.
When it comes to diplomacy, George W. Bush could learn a thing or two from Chretien. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Licia Corbella, editor of the Calgary Sun, can be reached at 403-250-4129 or by e-mail at licia.corbella@calgarysun.com. Her columns appear Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Letters to the editor should be sent to callet@sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA).]
|