Flippant foreign policy

As President George W. Bush begins his second
term, it is urgent that both sides of the political spectrum
closely examine American foreign policy. Bush’s foreign
policy has made the United States the global enforcer, with a
mandate to intervene against dangerous terrorist states and tyrants
that violate human rights. This is not necessarily a bad foreign
policy, except that it is increasingly clear that America will soon
be alone. Current U.S. foreign policy isolates the United States
from its allies and is makes the United States more of a target for
future attacks.

Whether or not one agrees with Bush’s
decision to attack Iraq before inspections were completed, it is
inarguable that by doing so America weakened the United Nations.
There is nothing it can do about this, but it does insult the
important institution and a large number of countries. This is not
a debate of whether the invasion was the right decision. What is
truly important is that the preemptive strike is indicative of the
character of our foreign policy. The invasion clearly disregards
U.N. authority and generally accepted international laws. Since the
end of the Cold War, America has been shifting its foreign policy
to become the enforcer of international law, yet never accountable
to it.

This can be seen not only in our military
actions, but our political agreements. The Kyoto Protocol for
better environmental practices was accepted by 178 states, but
America abstained. The United States has also refused to join the
International Criminal Court, which would try people accused of
genocide and crimes against humanity. Bush has said in speeches
that he does not wish our soldiers to be tried in foreign
 courts.

However, the United States has detained and
tried Iraqi and Afghan citizens without any civil or political
rights. Not only is this clearly hypocritical, it sends a message
to the world that American citizens are more important than any
other citizens.

Our allies can only take so much insult before
we are viewed as a rogue superpower. It is also important to
remember that those who hate America are not all religious fanatics
who hate our society. It is well documented that the most famous of
the hijackers, Mohammed Atta, began hating the United States for
its foreign policy before he joined al-Qaida. Of course no matter
what we do, there are going to be people who hate our actions, as
it is impossible to be completely just in foreign policy.

However, it is necessary for our foreign
policy not to be comically unjust and hypocritical if we are going
to improve our standing in world opinion. And it is important for
the world opinion of us to be good not just for its own sake, but
also to increase allies and reduce terrorism.

The tragic events of Sept. 11 created an
opportunity for greater global respect and cooperation.

All know of the increased patriotism in the
United States, but in much of the world, and virtually all Western
countries, there was massive sympathy for the United States and a
degree of global unity that is unheard of in modern history. Even
hated French President Jacques Chirac spoke of the
“solidarity of the entire French people during this terrible
ordeal.” This should have been the beginning of a new era of
global enforcement to truly make the world safer from terrorism and
 tyranny.

Shortly after Sept. 11, it seemed this might
begin as the United States changed policy and agreed to begin to
pay our debts to the United Nations. However, as the president used
a cowboy approach in Iraq and did not make any other effort to
reach to the global community, the unprecedented unity has
completely disintegrated, both internationally and domestically. If
this article was written two weeks ago it would be asking for a new
leader, but now all that can be asked for is leadership.

Ben Turner is a sophomore at Tulane College
majoring in international relations and international development.
He can be reached at bturner1@tulane.edu.