Posted on: Sunday, July 29, 2001

Editorial
U.S. builds reputation as a 'Lone Ranger'

When the Biological Weapons Convention was created in 1972, during the Cold War, negotiators left out enforcement details because no one seriously thought any nation would try to use germ warfare. Perhaps they had forgotten Japan's World War II record.

Then the world was re-reminded by Saddam Hussein.

The United States properly began pushing for a way to give the treaty teeth when Iraqi armaments discovered after the Gulf War showed it had been useless.

But now the United States has walked away from negotiations involving 55 other countries, saying the draft proposal hammered out after seven years of painstaking effort is "unacceptable."

As it happens, the Bush administration is partly right. It considers at least 37 items in the protocol deficient, and all of these concerns had been voiced under President Clinton.

A major difference, however, is that the Clintonians were resolved to keep at it until an acceptable accord could be reached.

One of the biggest difficulties was finding a way for inspections to uncover germ warfare weapons without compromising proprietary business information.

Bush's pull-out wastes years of effort, frustrates the other participants, and obviously fuels his reputation as a "go-it-alone" player.

Add these germ warfare talks to the rejection of the Kyoto climate-change protocol and (soon) the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, abandonment of talks on restrictions on small-arms trade, the U.S. Senate's failure to ratify the nuclear test ban treaty and the Clinton administration's rejection of a 1997 treaty banning land mines, and the United States begins to look quite the isolationist power.

More crucial, however, is the growing likelihood that terrorists will launch germ warfare attacks upon the United States. In a terrorism response exercise last month, experts found the results "chilling" and "frightening."

Why, then, is Bush refusing to continue to work with allies and other nations to seek to prevent such a disaster?