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Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive.
Editorial: 10/21/99 If a diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell so that you actually look forward to the trip, then Sir Christopher Meyer is a superb travel agent. The British ambassador to the United States will only say that "...perhaps later on the Senate of your country might consider approving the comprehensive test ban treaty under different circumstances." Or in non-diplomatic English---the Senate shot down the treaty as an in-your-face to Bill Clinton, and might pass it if somebody else--anybody else--is President. Which tells us more than we want to know about how the new isolationists in Washington are running things. The treaty had plenty of flaws, and probably should have been withdrawn and not voted on at all until it was amended. Instead, the G.O.P. majority voted it down as a message to Mr. Clinton that they intend on making him a policy eunuch until January 21, 2001. The tenor of all this was set when Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms acidly remarked on a letter the president received from British Prime Minister Tony Blair urging passage of the treaty. Helms said "And his final words were probably 'Say hello to Monica'." America's world leadership is threatened by drivel and trivia, and this is just one example. But none of this is new. The Clinton administration has never had any interest in overseas affairs unless it involves money or political payback. Since 1993, American foreign policy has been driven not by national interest, but by corporate profits. Bill Clinton's vision of world affairs is to make the planet safe for corporate America. So the State and Defense departments have taken a back seat to the Commerce Department. Why, for example, worry that China has stolen both nuclear and technical secrets? After all, China is the world's biggest potential market for everything from Boeing airframes to McDonald's hamburgers. So just keep it all quiet in the name of letting American companies pry open Chinese wallets. Or take Mr. Clinton's nomination of former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley-Braun as ambassador to New Zealand. Moseley-Braun disgraced herself by buddying up to the bloodthirsty military regime in Nigeria, and by playing fast and loose with her campaign finances. The Kiwis deserve better than this. But her nomination is in trouble not because of her qualifications, or lack of them, but because of the Confederate flag. While in the Senate, Moseley-Braun helped kill the copyright of the emblem of the Daughters of Confederate Veterans because it bears the Stars and Bars. Now Jesse Helms wants his pound of flesh over the issue. The web site of one ultra-right wing group is urging e-mails to Helms supporting him on the rebel flag, and refers to the nominee as "Carol Mostly-Brown." The isolationist bunch in Congress these days prefers not to even think about foreign affairs in any real way. Instead, they intend to concentrate on the really important stuff like the Confederate flag and nailing the Ten Commandments above the schoolhouse door. The G.O.P. majority's going even further, whacking 15 per-cent from the budget used to operate our embassies and operations abroad. Alabama Congessman Sonny Callahan pretty much summed it up when he said the homefolks get a kick out of it when he tells them he voted to cut foreign aid. One wonders if they'll be as happy when a nutcase in some part of the world they can't even find on a map blows up a U.S. Embassy and kills some Alabamans because they couldn't afford the proper security. Again, not surprising. After all, a majority in this Congress don't even hold valid passports. House Majority Leader Dick Armey summed up the smirking new isolationist credo when he reportedly said that he's only been outside of the United States once and never saw any reason to go back. Luckily, Mr. Armey probably didn't take the time to learn another language for the trip, and thereby saved himself the embarrasment of being bi-ignorant. Sooner or later, you end up with the face and the government you deserve. And we're the ones, Republicans and Democrats, who've elected this president and this congress. We're the ones who've decided that it's all right for them to ignore everything beyond the 12-mile limit unless there's a buck to be made or a pal to be given a job. America is the only superpower left. We have global responsibilities and global reach. And this raise-the-drawbridges-screw-the-foreigners approach is going to end up getting people killed. The world is a good deal more dangerous now than it was when there were only two superpowers. Countries from the U.S.S.R. to Yugoslavia have split apart into bloody factions. Across the planet, people are smashing old nations and retreating into still older ethnic and tribal sections. All of which means the world and its' dangers are less predictable than ever before. At the same time, globalization is real and in your face every day. This essay, for example, can be read as soon as it's posted by people from Australia to Afghanistan. Money and information fly across borders like they aren't there. We can take a sophisticated, balanced view of the world, and try to predict dangers and prepare well thought-out responses to them. Or we giddily vote for isolationists from the ostrich school of politics, sticking their heads in the sand and their fannys in the air and refusing to give any serious thought to any of this, which seems to be what's happening. If ignorance is bliss, we've probably chosen the happiest government around. |
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