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Act of Creation by
Stephen Schlesinger
The
Founding of the United Nations: A Story of Superpowers, Secret
Agents, Wartime Allies and Enemies, and Their Quest for a
Peaceful World See
Reviews. Order
Here.
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Stephen Schlesinger and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
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STEPHEN
SCHLESINGER: BUSH's GLOBAL TEST (MaximsNews.com,
U.N.)
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 14 November 2004 -- George
Bush has a global test problem.
As he is providing the world
community these days his latest reason for being in Iraq -- the notion that he
is implanting democracy in that benighted Middle Eastern land, with the
promise that, once that is achieved, he will bring US troops home -- the
on-the-ground realities tell a different tale.
For his latest foray inside that
disordered state – the invasion of Falluja – has so heated up an already
incendiary situation that it has begun to spit flames all over the landscape,
most especially now in the cities of Mosul, Tirkit, Kirkuk, Hawija, Samara and
Ramadi.
Bush’s strike on Falluja, and
the spreading mayhem throughout the nation, is
beginning to remind one of a variation on the classically ironic
Vietnam observation once made by a US officer:
“We had to destroy the country
to save it.”
During the presidential
campaign, George Bush gleefully criticized John Kerry for suggesting that any
American action abroad, especially of a military kind, should have to meet
some sort of global standard before being pursued.
No foreign country or
international organization, he vowed, would ever veto his US national security
decisions.
However, what Kerry really meant
was the seemingly self-evident point that, as a practical matter, a US armed
action overseas had to have some legitimate backing and be grounded in
on-the-field realities in order to work.
After all, in making so grave a
decision as to go to war, any planning has to be subject to review and
criticism. If it doesn’t survive such an evaluation, it should be discarded.
Now
let’s take a look at the Falluja incursion so far.
It
has been denounced by Muslim leaders throughout the Middle East and Asia.
It
has triggered a letter of warning from the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
It
has received scant support from European leaders.
It
has killed a few guerrillas but, according to The
New York Times, the greater number of the rebels have dispersed to other
towns where they wait until the American forces leave to re-infiltrate Falluja.
And
finally, as one insurgent observed to The
Times, US attacks on the city “will increase resentment and hatred and
give the resistance more support in the city.”
The
Bush Administration may apparently be willing to live with such a backlash.
After all, it has a grander vision for Iraq’s future.
Looking
beyond today’s bloody horizon, it sees a time when the dust and tumult will
settle, Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites will
live together in a harmonious multicultural, pluralistic country, free
elections will be held regularly, and a thriving economy, propelled forward by
newly unleashed capitalism, will catapult Iraq into the leading ranks of
states in the Middle East, radiating its lessons of free enterprise and
liberty to its neighbors and changing the face of Arab society forever.
But,
given almost two years of chaos in Iraq, is it possible that for all of George
Bush’s noble purposes, he may be simply be in error.
When
he chose to order American troops into Iraq, one had always presumed that he
or his so-called “adult” advisors took into account the verities of Iraq,
the Middle East, world opinion, religious and ethnic hatreds, anti-US rage,
the manageability of US forces, a budget crisis at home, and a dozen other
unforeseen problems that had to be looked at.
For
here is where John Kerry’s cautious admonition – that a leader always
needs to take a second look for critical global calls – comes into play.
In
short, would it not have been better for Bush to have subjected himself to the
global test, a la Kerry, from the start?
And
the consequences are in. We are already seeing what the failure to pass such a
examination has wrought.
Having
forgone the backing of the UN Security Council for his scheme and forfeited
world-wide legitimacy, Bush has sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind.
Most
foreign countries, our allies included, subsequently decided not to provide
any succor for the operation.
The
fragile “coalition” which Bush cobbled together has disintegrated.
Countries like El Salvador, Honduras, Poland, Spain have all fled.
Non-governmental
organizations like the International Rescue Committee, CARE and Doctors
Without Borders, have abandoned Iraq.
Even
in the final days of his presidential campaign, backing from the American
public for his cause in Iraq declined to around 40%.
Bush’s
own party is now on the verge of being torn asunder by the conflict.
Muslim
extremists have poured into Iraq, beheadings and kidnappings have increased,
and the UN now doubts it can monitor an election without more security.
And
we still don’t have a coherent strategy for exiting the war.
That
is why we needed a global test in the first place, Mr. President.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
~~~~~
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