President Bush’s 15-minute address Monday set the clock ticking on a firm 48-hour deadline for Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq, a deadline Saddam mocked Tuesday in Iraq.
The United States, in signaling war, does not alone hold responsibility for this inevitability.
Prolonged inaction by the United Nations and its Security Council created a world culture where al-Qaeda blossomed and where extremists grew accustomed to acting without any real threat of sanctions. It’s a culture where Saddam can gas his own people and defy the world.
Had the U.N. been more forceful in its mission to prevent conflict by bolstering diplomacy with meaningful sanctions, the brink of war may never have been reached.
But we are at the brink, and there is no point in further arguing the point.
Saddam and his sons have no intention of bending under Bush’s ultimatum. Troops will move in.
President Bush assured the Iraqi people Monday that the United States will target Saddam’s oppressive regime and hopes to protect Iraqi citizens.
While it was good to say that aloud, part of the oppression in Iraq is Saddam’s disregard of innocents. He will likely use civilians as human shields, and innocent people will almost assuredly die as a result.
The stories and photos of these deaths will add to the world’s increasingly poor opinion of the United States, an opinion that has some foundation.
When Bush was seeking the presidency he was so unschooled in foreign policy that it became a running joke. While his father was well-practiced in diplomatic relations, the present President Bush is not as savvy.
In the past two years he has offended the world community by pulling out of the Kyoto Treaty, telling NATO allies they weren’t spending enough on their armed forces, clashing with Brazil over trade policies and frustrating the European Union with what it considers Bush’s “absolutist and simplistic” stance toward the rest of the world, among many other things.
Fading to distant memory is the good the United States has done worldwide, frequently at great human and financial cost. We live in a world where “what have you done for me lately?” is the common measure.
And, lately, under President Bush, military might has taken precedence over gentle diplomacy. It’s not a comfortable stand for many of our allies, most notably the French.
In past conflicts, as the United States stood on the doorstep to force peace, the United Nations and our allies fell in behind. The ill will Bush has generated and the diplomatic ties he has damaged have permanently altered that pattern. Bush must now see the importance of repairing diplomatic relations as we move forward.
The president’s 48-hour deadline expires at 8 p.m. Saddam will not acquiesce and the U.S. administration will not turn back.
Our troops, already mustering in the Middle East, will be on the frontline. We pray for their safety and for a speedy end to this war.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
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