Happy birthday, America. You’re two hundred and twenty-six today. We’re throwing ourselves a party and if no other nations attend, that’s OK too. We don’t really like them anyway.
The International Criminal Court was born Monday and the American ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, was on hand to slap the baby. It seems the International Criminal Court, or ICC, would exert jurisdiction over soldiers taking part in international peacekeeping missions, like the one in Bosnia. No way, said Mr. Negroponte, no way will any court full of foreigners ever presume to sit in judgement of American soldiers. If the ICC wants to police peacekeepers in Bosnia, then the U.S. will pull the G.I. Joes and Janes out of the mission.
Our European allies, especially the British, French and Germans, are trying to put a good face on all this. They’re trying to hide their embarrassment and disdain and make one more accommodation to the Bush administration. This is getting to be a regular thing. Last week, the same leaders had to make nice with George W. while distancing themselves from Bush’s call for the ouster of democratically-elected Yasir Arafat. Before that, it was turning a blind eye to America’s abandonment of the anti-ballistic missile treaty, our refusal to sign the biological weapons treaty and our repudiation of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. What the hell, as long as we’re at it, we may as well start hunting whales again.
The Europeans are working particularly hard to overlook the enormous double standard the U.S has engaged on the courts issue. On one hand, we say our military personnel will never answer to any authority outside our national chain of command. At the very same moment, the United States is holding dozens of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; men who are citizens of nations we are not at war with, men who are not granted the rights guaranteed them by the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, men whose status the U.S. refuses to negotiate, even with our allies.
Mr. Bush and the American right have never liked the United Nations very much and if the current opposition to the ICC has the effect of undermining the authority of the UN, the administration is more than willing to let that happen.
Mr. Bush is choosing a strategic moment to step away from the community of nations. After September 11th, one might have thought America, feeling the pain terrorism has inflicted on so many nations, might draw closer to our allies and make common cause with them. To some extent, that has happened, inasmuch as we let the world know what it could do for us. At the same time, however, the Bush administration has used September 11th as a reason to expand the Atlantic and pull away from our old friends.
This is about more than fighting terrorism. Twelve European nations adopted a common currency on January 1st. Increasingly, Europe appears to be America’s equal in population, economic vitality and technical and cultural sophistication. (Actually, they’ve always been way ahead on culture.) Europe is changing as it unites. The center-left coalitions that saw Europe through the 1990s are giving way to center-right and far right governments in Austria, France, Holland, Denmark and Italy. Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder, still of the center-left, face uncertain futures.
George W. Bush, at home and abroad, is acting more and more like a tyrant. He makes one unreasonable demand after another and gets his way far too often. Leaders of allied nations give in to Mr. Bush’s demands, or pretend not to notice, all the while hoping this demand will be the last. But the more George W. gets from Europe, the more he feels entitled to. If Europe really wants to be a friend to America, it should give the gift of truth, as a birthday present. Europe should have learned long ago – appeasing a tyrant is a bad idea.
Turning a Blind Eye
Happy birthday, America. You’re two hundred and twenty-six today. We’re throwing ourselves a party and if no other nations attend, that’s OK too. We don’t really like them anyway.
The International Criminal Court was born Monday and the American ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, was on hand to slap the baby. It seems the International Criminal Court, or ICC, would exert jurisdiction over soldiers taking part in international peacekeeping missions, like the one in Bosnia. No way, said Mr. Negroponte, no way will any court full of foreigners ever presume to sit in judgement of American soldiers. If the ICC wants to police peacekeepers in Bosnia, then the U.S. will pull the G.I. Joes and Janes out of the mission.
Our European allies, especially the British, French and Germans, are trying to put a good face on all this. They’re trying to hide their embarrassment and disdain and make one more accommodation to the Bush administration. This is getting to be a regular thing. Last week, the same leaders had to make nice with George W. while distancing themselves from Bush’s call for the ouster of democratically-elected Yasir Arafat. Before that, it was turning a blind eye to America’s abandonment of the anti-ballistic missile treaty, our refusal to sign the biological weapons treaty and our repudiation of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. What the hell, as long as we’re at it, we may as well start hunting whales again.
The Europeans are working particularly hard to overlook the enormous double standard the U.S has engaged on the courts issue. On one hand, we say our military personnel will never answer to any authority outside our national chain of command. At the very same moment, the United States is holding dozens of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; men who are citizens of nations we are not at war with, men who are not granted the rights guaranteed them by the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, men whose status the U.S. refuses to negotiate, even with our allies.
Mr. Bush and the American right have never liked the United Nations very much and if the current opposition to the ICC has the effect of undermining the authority of the UN, the administration is more than willing to let that happen.
Mr. Bush is choosing a strategic moment to step away from the community of nations. After September 11th, one might have thought America, feeling the pain terrorism has inflicted on so many nations, might draw closer to our allies and make common cause with them. To some extent, that has happened, inasmuch as we let the world know what it could do for us. At the same time, however, the Bush administration has used September 11th as a reason to expand the Atlantic and pull away from our old friends.
This is about more than fighting terrorism. Twelve European nations adopted a common currency on January 1st. Increasingly, Europe appears to be America’s equal in population, economic vitality and technical and cultural sophistication. (Actually, they’ve always been way ahead on culture.) Europe is changing as it unites. The center-left coalitions that saw Europe through the 1990s are giving way to center-right and far right governments in Austria, France, Holland, Denmark and Italy. Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder, still of the center-left, face uncertain futures.
George W. Bush, at home and abroad, is acting more and more like a tyrant. He makes one unreasonable demand after another and gets his way far too often. Leaders of allied nations give in to Mr. Bush’s demands, or pretend not to notice, all the while hoping this demand will be the last. But the more George W. gets from Europe, the more he feels entitled to. If Europe really wants to be a friend to America, it should give the gift of truth, as a birthday present. Europe should have learned long ago – appeasing a tyrant is a bad idea.