Posted on: Thursday, December 26, 2002
EDITORIAL
Peace on Earth isn't getting closer
As we gather up the wrapping paper and slice the cold turkey for sandwiches today, do we not feel just a twinge of relief that the seasonal bywords, "Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men," will stop pricking our consciences for another year?
Not that we don't truly mean these words. It's just that they don't fit all that well with our foreign policy as it is unfolding.
Consider that on Monday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reassured us that the U.S. military is "perfectly capable" of fighting against Iraq and North Korea simultaneously, with the war on terror bubbling along in the background.
All of these crises, the Bush administration assures us, are not of our making. These people hate us for what we have and what we stand for, we're told.
Because it is so poorly defined (terrorism is a technique, not a tribe), the war on terror threatens to morph into "The Clash of Civilizations" described by Samuel Huntington, despite his argument that a world war between the West and the Islamic world can be avoided.
The North Koreans now warn of an "uncontrollable catastrophe" unless the United States agrees to negotiate a solution to its nuclear energy and weapons programs. "We're not going to bargain or offer inducements for North Korea to live up to the treaties and agreements it has signed," says a State Department spokesman.
This position is correct, but is it useful? Kim Jong Il is among the world's most vicious and wretched dictators, but if all he really wants is talks and aid, why push the issue to the brink?
The Russians make the intriguing suggestion that it was Bush who backed the North Koreans into their menacing pose. "There is no use expecting countries included in the 'axis of evil' to remain passive," said a deputy foreign minister.
It is not irrational for Kim Jong Il to conclude, having read Bush's strident National Security Strategy and doctrine of pre-emption, that he is next in line for attack after Saddam Hussein.
Saddam's days, of course, are numbered. It's difficult to conceive of an event that would prevent a February invasion. And yet, as David Shapiro reminds in the adjoining column, Bush has never made a convincing case for war with Iraq.
As Bush promotes the "common calling of freedom-loving people across the globe and across the ages," we note that Latin America is disintegrating, the administration's answer to the profusion of AIDS in Africa and Asia is to discourage the use of condoms, it ducks the industrialized world's fight against global warming and it warns us to avoid such formerly welcoming, spiritual spots as Bali.
"Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men" are words that should leave Americans just a bit uncomfortable at the moment.
