Foreign policy. To me it is not so much 'foreign' in that it pertains to
policies regarding others in the international community. It is simply
foreign to common sense, equality and justice. The 'you' referred to in the
following piece is anyone engaged in the formulation of Western foreign
policy - not any particular nation or individual.
I got home in a good mood the other night and switched on CNN World News
to catch the latest before turning in. It was downhill from there. First
off, I was seriously upset to see Gerry Adams walking out of Tony Blair's 10
Downing Street with a big smile on his face. I don't think I can erase from
memory the image of Adams carrying the coffin of an IRA bomber. A few days
later Sinn Fein's own newspaper carried a statement from the IRA saying they
will not lay down their weapons.
I was further pissed to see Bill Clinton blowing sunshine up Israeli butt
with his 50th Anniversary speech. Okay, the POTUS did call on Obi-wan
Netanyahu to make the most of upcoming talks in London and not let the
chance of peace slip away. However, the dominant tone was; Well done, Israel.
And I felt like throwing up when Bill Richardson glared at the cameras
and condemned Iraq to at least another six months of horrendous
kiddy-killing sanctions. If, after all this time, the Iraqi regime still has
weapons of mass destruction then it is patently obvious that the sanctions
are not working. Nor are the inspections. So how about relaxing areas of the
embargo that directly hurt civilians? Continuing the stranglehold on Iraqi
kids is not diplomacy or statesmanship - it is bloody-minded obstinacy. It
could also be called murder. Genocide, even.
For once, let's cut through the BS and be honest. You can't praise one
nation while they blatantly ignore United Nations resolutions, and then
condemn another for allegedly doing the same thing. Kuwait, in geographical
terms, is smaller than Southern Lebanon, Golan and the West Bank.
It is not moral to threaten sanctions against a country that denies to
give up part of its sovereign territory (Serbia/Kosovo), while at the same
time giving aid and selling weapons to another that is guilty of gross human
rights abuse and genocide in a territory it invaded (Indonesia/East Timor).
You cannot expect to be taken seriously while threatening a nation with
military action for having 'suspected' weapons of mass destruction while
failing to condemn in the strongest possible terms another that has an
illegal stockpile (Iraq/Israel).
It is not fair to climb a mountain of collective international guilt and
offer moral latitude to one ethnic group and allow them to commit crimes
because they were the target of Nazi genocide but deny the same 'indulgence'
to another victim (Jew/Serb). I was heartened, however, when later in the
week I saw something on the news wires that doesn't happen very often. A
former Croatian army officer is being extradited from South America to face
charges stemming from his role as a World War Two concentration camp
commander. The bulk of his victims were Serb civilians. A lot of them. It
serves as a reminder to those who wonder why the Serbs are not too fond of
nationalist Croats. The same reason Jews are none too enthusiastic about
neo-nazi Europeans. I haven't seen the story on television or in the
mainstream media yet.
It escapes me why one country can be isolated because of its political
system but another can be vigorously engaged - even though they follow the
same doctrine (Cuba/China). Well, actually it doesn't escape me. China trade
is worth a lot more than Cuba trade. Castro in the Rose Garden? Nah, we'll
never see it. I am amazed that critics can rant about human rights,
demanding government action, yet say nothing when financial aid is given and
US troops even engage in 'friendly' war games with a country that has openly
killed scores of pro-democracy activists (China/Thailand). I would probably
be a little less sick of hearing about Tiananmen if a few people raised the
question of accountability for the Rachadamnoen Avenue massacre every time
Thai and US politicians got together.
I imagine most of our readers wouldn't hesitate for a second if asked;
when did the events in Tiananmen occur? I doubt if quite as many could
immediately tell me when Thai troops fired on unarmed pro-democracy
demonstrators in Bangkok. The most recent time, that is.
And several times a day this week the BBC has broadcast reports from
Southern Sudan where a human catastrophe is taking place. Not waiting to
happen, not on the verge of - but happening and happening right now. I am
still waiting to see and hear the great and good announce what steps they
are taking to put pressure on the Khartoum regime to allow the free and
unfettered transportation of food aid. Putting the problem into a
perspective that perhaps White House press corps correspondents might
understand - I seriously doubt if any of the starving kids have ever heard
of Monica Lewinsky. I watched parts of the press conference that was
supposed to focus on the economy - and I came away wishing you folks would
start to ask questions that mattered. Or at least a few new ones. Ken Starr,
Lewinsky and Jones will be here tomorrow. I wonder how many Sudanese kids
have died in the time it took to write this final paragraph?
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