Friday, November 22, 2002

Things Will Get Worse We are all on a bus headed for a crash, and it is not clear whether anyone can grab the wheel from our driver before he takes us over a cliff.   Our driver, George Bush, is trying to go where no road can take him.  His ambition is the problem. Used to absolutist religious rhetoric, he makes sweeping statements, committing the U.S. to become the world’s policeman fighting proliferation of nuclear weapons.   There is a great article in the Chicago Tribune yesterday by Steve Chapman that should not be overlooked.  He says, after referring to Bush’s axis of evil, “The strong implication was that if they refuse to disarm, we'll disarm them by coercion or force. If we can find allies, we're happy for them to help, but we're also ready to act alone. "Making it our job to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is like trying to drink the oceans dry. The Pentagon says at least 25 countries have or are trying to get "nuclear, chemical or biological weapons or the means to deliver them." Every action we take to forcibly disarm a potential threat gives other nations additional incentive to acquire such armaments so it can avoid that fate."   Chapman then goes on to look at the military budget.  Bush’s budget increases overall war spending by 50% by 2007, to $442 billion by 2007--up by nearly 50 percent from 2000.    He then says but among conservatives, this financial commitment is seen as pitifully inadequate. "A year into this activist foreign policy, the defense agencies that will prosecute the war on terrorism remain starved of resources," declared military historian Frederick Kagan in a recent article in the hawkish Weekly Standard. "Increases of some $100 billion annually or more” above what is already budgeted will be necessary.   The question of a different approach to nuclear proliferation is not an option—it is a necessity, and democrats should be screaming about it.  Bush’s unilateralism makes things worse—not better.  It is like pouring water on gasoline.   I was sobered by the dearth of leadership reading the following comment from Haaretz.  This is from Doren Rosenblum’s editorial about the death of Abba Eban.  He says   "Let us not mince words: Since the Rabin assassination, those who are known as the "leaders of the left" have been scared to death, literally. Rabin was the last major leader who "was not careful of his tongue," as the saying goes, and especially not of his actions, and who called the settlement enterprise and its price by its name, even without reference to the peace process. And look what happened to him. Unfortunately, those who "internalized the murder" were not those who fought him, but mainly those who supported him."   "Even in normal times and in normal countries, becoming a candidate for the leadership takes personal daring and entails exposure and tremendous self-sacrifice. How many of us are capable of that? Especially in a period like the present one, in a country like this one, in an atmosphere of this kind, and with an ideological platform like that. "   "To know what is right and not to do it shows lack of courage," Confucius said. From this point of view, Mitzna's [the new labor party leader] courage so far overrides that of all the knights of escalation, inertia, stagnation, survival and manipulation: those who don't know what to do but are there anyway; or those who know very well what has to be done, but refrain from doing it because they are afraid."   Earlier this week, Democratic senate leader Tom Daschle said he and his family were subjected to increased death threats because of Rush Limbaugh’s incitement.  In our own country also, fear is preventing democrats from speaking their minds—not physical fear of assassination, at least not yet, but fear of being savagely attacked as criminal and unpatriotic.   We need to speak up or die.   3:14:55 PM   comment []

© Copyright 2002 Toby Sackton. Last update: 12/26/2002; 9:30:59 PM.