EDITORIAL U.S. ignores true threats to peace
Years ago, Pope Paul VI wrote:
Extreme disparity between nations in economic, social and educational
levels provokes jealousy and discord, often putting peace in jeopardy.
For peace is not simply the absence of warfare, based on a precarious balance
of power; it is fashioned by efforts directed day after day toward the
establishment of the ordered universe willed by God, with a more perfect form
of justice among all humankind.
The poverty and injustices Pope Paul saw worldwide in the
mid-1960s, which led him to write Populorum Progessio, (On the
Development of Peoples) in 1967, have become more abysmal in the years
since.
The point here is that the Catholic church has for many years had
a different notion about how peace is -- and is not -- achieved. Consider these
ideas from Catholic social teaching when looking at the course the United
States is currently setting out on to achieve its idea of security and peace in
a missile defense shield. Earlier this month, the Bush administration formally
announced that in order to pursue the missile strategy, the United States would
withdraw in six months from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, that
foundational treaty that set the stage for three decades of nuclear disarmament
negotiations.
The withdrawal from the ABM treaty and the decision to go forward
with building a missile defense shield is the biggest U.S. foreign policy
blunder since the Vietnam War. It constitutes a gross misdirection of scarce
resources and energy. Lets be clear. Time is running out to confront the
real social ills that will increasingly cause world conflict. Global warming as
a result of the burning of fossil fuels, the increased scarcity of fresh water
sources, depleted fishing stocks, illiteracy, hunger and unemployment all pose
far greater risks to the United States than the possibility of an errant rogue
state hurling a missile at us through space.
The Sept. 11 attacks and the horrific poverty of Afghanistan and
most of the Islamic world should give us pause and move wise leaders to see
where the real threats rest. But wisdom and courage are in short supply in a
Washington convinced that might makes right and that the United States can live
in splendid isolation from an increasingly despairing world.
Why is it that the only time we seek consensus around the globe is
when we need international support for the next military adventure? The only
time we tout international cooperation is when weve got plans to drop
bombs somewhere. It is no surprise, then, that hatred of the United States
mounts. Meanwhile, the ABM decision, by committing the nation to a
unilateralist and new military course, moves the nations misguided policy
to the level of public immorality.
Aside from its highly dubious effectiveness (there is no shortage
of scientists who think it a silly venture) the defense shield represents, with
all the anticipated hundreds of billions of dollars it will cost, the crowning
moment of U.S. unilateralism.
Do you need evidence of Washingtons contempt for the hopes
and desires of 95 percent of humanity? Consider that the Bush administration
has: announced withdrawal from the ABM Treaty; single-handedly brought the
Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Review Conference to a halt; renounced
international efforts to negotiate a verification protocol to the BWC;
abandoned the Kyoto Global Warming Accord; refused to reconsider the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; rejected the International Criminal Court;
discarded the Convention on the Prohibition of Land Mines; gutted the U.N.
conference on Small Arms; dismissed the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the
Child; boycotted the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Review Conference in New
York; supported a unilateral embargo on Cuba; and plans to place weapons in
space.
It is not only the disparity in economic, social and educational
opportunities that threatens peace but also a certain arrogance that broadcasts
an intent to go it alone when the rest of the world becomes an
inconvenience.
Do we really need to wonder why so many beyond our borders view us
as a less-than-benign giant?
National Catholic Reporter, December 28,
2001
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