Column
Bush’s unilateralism aggravates world’s
problems
By ROBERT F. DRINAN
In the 24 months of the Bush
administration, America’s foreign policy has become confused and
incoherent because of a new and indefensible unilateralism. The United States
has more and more isolated itself from international law and from the
accumulated wisdom of the arms control community.
The most recent example of the “Lone Ranger” mentality
is the announcement by the White House that it will return to the idea of
creating a shield in the sky against incoming missiles. This concept, created
by President Reagan as “Star Wars,” has never worked and is not
needed since the demise of the “Evil Empire” in 1990.
But this missile defense scheme is just the most recent instance
of the United States rejecting world opinion. In 2001 President Bush announced
that the United States would withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile
(ABM) Treaty and that the United States would once again resume nuclear
explosions. In doing so the United States took a step opposed by Russia, China
and most U.S. allies.
The Bush administration has also walked out of the biological
weapons convention agreed to by 143 nations. Similarly, the United States
refused to sign the treaty barring anti-personnel land mines even though every
country in the western hemisphere except Cuba signed it along with every NATO
country except Turkey.
The United States has also defied the concerns of the world on
limiting the transfer of small weapons. The United States continues to be the
number one manufacturer of weapons of war, including the sale of small
weapons.
The unilateralism of the United States was visible once again when
President Bush shocked the rest of the world by withdrawing from the Kyoto
Global Warming Treaty agreed to by 178 other countries.
The United States also followed its self-proclaimed unilateralism
when it refused to ratify the International Criminal Court.
The defiance of international law is also present in the new Bush
doctrine of preemptive military action. The White House relies on the attacks
of Sept. 11 as justification of a preemptive strike in the absence of any
evidence of an imminent attack. The Bush doctrine seems to support a position
that America’s unique military preeminence excuses it from obeying the
rules of international law. The administration is calling for an American
imperialism that must be carried out with little regard for the United Nations
or the long-standing doctrines of international law.
The Bush doctrine wrongly assumes that massive military power can
keep the United States safe. In the first two years of the Bush administration
the military budget has been increased by some 30 percent. The defense budget
has $385 billion dollars to spend -- a sum larger than all of the other nations
of the world put together. The United States now spends over $1 billion dollars
a day on the military!
I have followed arms control since the 1960s. I wrote a book on
this subject and taught courses on it at Georgetown University for many years.
Never before has an administration defied the accumulated wisdom of arms
controllers and rejected the treaties agreed upon by all of the major
nations.
Representatives of the president and the Pentagon have, in the
name of fighting terrorism, revived some of the worst ideas engendered by the
Cold War. They have intimidated the people from speaking out. The coming war in
Iraq will in all probability further silence even those who know that the new
military posture is not grounded in reality, but in a war-mongering crusade
based on the illusion that military might can subdue the terrorists and bring
peace to the world.
One can only wonder what the 1.2 billion people in 48 Islamic
nations think as the United States invades Afghanistan and now Iraq. Ten or 20
years from now what will the Islamic world think of a United States that uses
weapons of mass destruction to achieve supremacy?
The Bush White House has clearly misjudged the problems of the
world. It has assumed that the unilateral threat and use of barbarous weapons
will guarantee American supremacy and thus world peace.
The world’s problems will not be resolved by the unilateral
use of force. President Carter put it well. In his speech accepting the Nobel
Peace Prize he wisely saw that “the most serious and universal problem is
the growing chasm between the richest and the poorest people on earth.”
President Carter continued: “The results of this disparity are root causes
of most of the world’s unresolved problems, including starvation,
illiteracy, environmental degradation, violent conflict and unnecessary
illnesses that range from Guinea worm to HIV/AIDS.”
It is painful to have to note that the Bush administration and the
Pentagon have not recognized these truths and as a result are aggravating these
problems by threatening violence and war.
There is no solution to this problem except a moral revolution by
millions of people who are ashamed and angry at the policies their nation has
advocated in the last 24 months.
Jesuit Fr. Robert Drinan is a professor at Georgetown
University Law Center. His e-mail address is
drinan@law.georgetown.edu
National Catholic Reporter, January 10,
2003
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