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Friday, March 14, 2003
Norris: Speaking of multilateralism, do you notice, as many have suggested, that there's an increasing unilateralist bent in the United States government?Nothing like asking a leading question. By the way, "many have suggested" does not imply truth; there are many more countries backing the US right now than there are supporting the self-serving French.
Blix: Yeah. On big issues like war in Iraq, but in many other issues they simply must be multilateral. There's no other way around. You have the instances like the global warming convention, the Kyoto protocol, when the U.S. went its own way. I regret it. To me the question of the environment is more ominous than that of peace and war. We will have regional conflicts and use of force, but world conflicts I do not believe will happen any longer. But the environment, that is a creeping danger. I'm more worried about global warming than I am of any major military conflict.There you have it, the man in charge of inspections of Iraq has officially declared that global warming is more dangerous than nuclear weapons. Thanks for clearing that up Hans, now we can set to the important task of searching Hussein's palaces for chlorofluorocarbons. Certainly the US could have signed on to the Kyoto protocol, knowing full well that the standards set by them cannot be reached, will not be reached and would be unrealistically costly. Yes, we could have done that just as France and Russia, who admitted they could never live up to its standards, but not wanting to be foolish hypocrites we declined.
Blix: We need to have patience in order to try to solve these conflicts as well. Like I said, I'm more worried long term about the environmental issues then the use of arms.Ah, yes, 12 years of patience isn't enough for Hans. More patience! How silly of President Bush, all this time the answer was right at his fingertips: Hussein is gassing Kurds? Well, serve them up a dollop of patience! Good thing Bush Sr. was slightly impatient with Saddam or he would not only be in control of Kuwait, but also Jordan and perhaps Syria and lobbing scuds into Israel. Then we'd have to ship over a boatload of patience. That'd show 'em!
Blix: At the same time, though, one must not disregard and forget the things that are breeding these terrorist movements. Why do they become terrorists? Why do they become so desperate they are willing to blow up airplanes or buildings? Therefore we have to look at the social problems as well.The "root causes" movement is indeed a popular one. When confronted with a terrorist who wants to kill me simply because I am me, I am less inclined to worry about what brought him to that psychosis than I am to concern myself with the fact that HE WANTS TO KILL ME. I think we have seen ample evidence of what causes someone to think that way; certainly poverty doesn't help, but bin Laden, for example, isn't exactly poverty-stricken and he is responsible for the deaths of a whole lot of Americans and others. Call me crazy, but perhaps raising children in small rooms doing nothing but memorizing the Koran and teaching them that the US is the Great Satan may tend to twist their ideology such that they do simply want to kill Americans. No amount of studying or understanding of "root causes" is going to dissuade that group. And the big closer. . .
Norris: Why do you think there's such a reticence on the part of governments to deal with the "whys" of terrorism and instead simply go after the elimination of these terrorists in whatever ways they can? Blix: Because the root causes are even more difficult to tackle then the symptoms of it. To wield the big stick and strike here and there and have big surveillance of telephones or whatnot, that can be done, but to get at the social conditions — better democracy, more education in the Middle East, giving the hope for the many youngsters in that part of the world — now that's harder. Look at the Palestinians with the huge, huge percentage of unemployed. What does that breed? Anyone who's unemployed in the world, you feel there's no meaning and there's a risk that you drift over to something desperate. Yes, we have to tackle the social problems as well.Well, it was my understanding that the US is trying to bring the Middle East kicking and screaming out of the 14th century by instituting democracies but it is Blix' ilk that is doing everything it can to throw up roadblocks. And when he says "more education," I hope he is implying modern education. For starters, that would require more than strict readings of the Koran and would include equality for women, homosexuals, and minority groups, and not the typical type of "education" the left likes to preach--that all cultures are equal and that we have to "understand" those that are clearly inferior. posted by the wolf | 4:10 PM
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