3/10/2005
Bush to Earth: Shove It
As I got into work this morning, my assistant, Pavlov Chien was merrily waving this Washington Post headline around:
U.S. Quits Pact Used in Capital CasesThis is one of the Geneva Convention protocols that we've participated in since 1969:
The protocol requires signatories to let the International Court of Justice (ICJ) make the final decision when their citizens say they have been illegally denied the right to see a home-country diplomat when jailed abroad."Isn't this wonderful news?" beamed Pavlov.
"It doesn't sound like good news to me," I replied. "It sounds like we're once again sounding a note of defiance to the world community. I call that unnecessarily making enemies."
"I call that leadership," said Pavlov. "Sometimes you have to destroy the Global Village to save the Global Village."
I should explain that Pavlov is on loan to me from the Project for a New American Ecology, a neoconservative think-tank, authors of the controversial best-seller Me First in the Balance. Like PNAC, they take as one of their fundamental premises:
We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership."But isn't leadership setting the right example? As Kant described it: becoming a shining example for all mankind. And doesn't leadership include not withdrawing from agreements in the international community?" I wondered.
"No, you America-hating hippopotamus. Leadership means you get to tell people what to do."
And with that said, and a dismissive snort, he threw the paper aside and returned to his forthcoming article: Alaskan Hegemony and You, Perfect Together.
File under: ANWR.
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