Don't tread on me/us/them

07.03.2003

Liberians are calling for the US to send troops to restore peace to their country and remove Charles Taylor (indicted by an international court for war crimes) from power. I wonder why they haven't asked the United Nations to intervene? Or France? (Oh, wait, Chirac's France is active in Africa — and the aborigènes aren't happy about that.)

The answer's obvious, of course. No one outside Europe really trusts the UN to do anything. About anything. And certainly not quickly.

Like it or not, Bush's Iraq policy has once again made the US the champion against repressive rulers in much of the third world. How else can you explain Iranian youth turning to the US w/ so much hope in their eyes? How else can you explain West Africans marching behind American flags, hoping for a day when they can see the end to dictators and civil wars? How else can you explain the sudden hope that Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi may be released (the Nobel Peace Prize winner's been under various forms of arrest since 1989)?

I'd hoped — as a rationale for The War — that a signal was being sent to the Ayatollahs, the Mugabes, the Charles Taylors, the Than Shwe's, and the Fujimoris of the world: "You are no longer relevant in this millennium!"

Meanwhile, the Europeans debate about their "cultural project" and censure an Italian for reminding the world that fifty years ago a war was fought in Europe. You're no longer allowed to mention the ghost of Nazism in Europe in "polite" company.

Posted by Miguel at 06:31 PM