By Thomas L Friedman
Perfect we are not, we admit, but America still has some moral backbone.
Much ink has been spilled lately decrying the decline in American popularity around the world under President George W Bush. Polls tell us how China is now more popular in Asia than America and how few Europeans say they identify with the United States. I am sure there is truth to these polls. We should have done better in Iraq. An America that presides over Abu Ghraib, torture and Guantanamo Bay deserves a thumbs-down.
But America is not and never has been just about those things, which is why I also find some of these poll results self-indulgent, knee-jerk and borderline silly. Friday’s vote at the UN on Zimbabwe reminded me why. Maybe Asians, Europeans, Latin Americans and Africans don’t like a world of too much American power – “Mr Big” got a little too big for them. But how would they like a world of too little American power? With America’s overextended military and overextended banks, that is the world into which we may be heading.
Welcome to a world of too much Russian and Chinese power. I am neither a Russia-basher nor a China-basher. But there was something truly filthy about Russia’s and China’s vetoes of the American-led UN Security Council effort to impose targeted sanctions on Robert Mugabe’s ruling clique in Zimbabwe.
The US put forward a simple Security Council resolution, calling for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, the appointment of a UN mediator, plus travel and financial restrictions on the dictator Mugabe and 13 top military and government officials for stealing the Zimbabwe election and essentially mugging an entire country in broad daylight.
In the first round of elections, on March 29, the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won nearly 48 per cent of the vote compared with 42 per cent for Mugabe. This prompted Mugabe and his henchmen to begin a campaign of killing and intimidation against Tsvangirai supporters that eventually forced the opposition to pull out of the second-round runoff vote just to stay alive.
Even before the runoff, Mugabe declared that he would disregard the results if his ZANU-PF party lost.
And so, of course, Mugabe “won” in one of the most blatantly stolen elections ever – in a country already mired in misrule, unemployment, hunger and inflation. Some 25 per cent of Zimbabwe’s people have now taken refuge in neighboring states. The Associated Press reported in May from Zimbabwe “that annual inflation rose this month to 1,063,572 per cent, based on prices of a basket of basic foodstuffs.” Zimbabwe’s currency has become so devalued, the AP explained, that “a loaf of bread now costs what 12 new cars did a decade ago.”
No matter. Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN ambassador, argued that the targeted sanctions that the US and others wanted to impose on Mugabe’s clique exceeded the Security Council’s mandate. Mugabe’s campaign of murder and intimidation didn’t strike Churkin as “illegitimate and dangerous”, only the UN resolution to bring a halt to it was “illegitimate and dangerous.”
But when it comes to pure, rancid moral corruption, no one can top South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, and his stooge at the UN, Dumisani Kumalo. They have done everything they can to prevent any meaningful UN pressure on the Mugabe dictatorship.
So let us now coin the Mbeki Rule: When whites persecute blacks, no amount of UN sanctions is too much. And when blacks persecute blacks, any amount of UN sanctions is too much. Which brings me back to America. Perfect we are not, but America still has some moral backbone. There are travesties we will not tolerate. The UN vote on Zimbabwe demonstrates that this is not true for these “popular” countries – called Russia or China or South Africa – who have no problem siding with a man who is pulverising his own people.
So, yes, we’re not so popular in Europe and Asia anymore. I guess they would prefer a world in which America was weaker, where leaders with the values of Vladimir Putin and Thabo Mbeki had a greater say, and where the desperate voices for change in Zimbabwe would, well, just shut up....
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul182008/editpage2008071779404.asp
Perfect we are not, we admit, but America still has some moral backbone.
Much ink has been spilled lately decrying the decline in American popularity around the world under President George W Bush. Polls tell us how China is now more popular in Asia than America and how few Europeans say they identify with the United States. I am sure there is truth to these polls. We should have done better in Iraq. An America that presides over Abu Ghraib, torture and Guantanamo Bay deserves a thumbs-down.
But America is not and never has been just about those things, which is why I also find some of these poll results self-indulgent, knee-jerk and borderline silly. Friday’s vote at the UN on Zimbabwe reminded me why. Maybe Asians, Europeans, Latin Americans and Africans don’t like a world of too much American power – “Mr Big” got a little too big for them. But how would they like a world of too little American power? With America’s overextended military and overextended banks, that is the world into which we may be heading.
Welcome to a world of too much Russian and Chinese power. I am neither a Russia-basher nor a China-basher. But there was something truly filthy about Russia’s and China’s vetoes of the American-led UN Security Council effort to impose targeted sanctions on Robert Mugabe’s ruling clique in Zimbabwe.
The US put forward a simple Security Council resolution, calling for an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, the appointment of a UN mediator, plus travel and financial restrictions on the dictator Mugabe and 13 top military and government officials for stealing the Zimbabwe election and essentially mugging an entire country in broad daylight.
In the first round of elections, on March 29, the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, won nearly 48 per cent of the vote compared with 42 per cent for Mugabe. This prompted Mugabe and his henchmen to begin a campaign of killing and intimidation against Tsvangirai supporters that eventually forced the opposition to pull out of the second-round runoff vote just to stay alive.
Even before the runoff, Mugabe declared that he would disregard the results if his ZANU-PF party lost.
And so, of course, Mugabe “won” in one of the most blatantly stolen elections ever – in a country already mired in misrule, unemployment, hunger and inflation. Some 25 per cent of Zimbabwe’s people have now taken refuge in neighboring states. The Associated Press reported in May from Zimbabwe “that annual inflation rose this month to 1,063,572 per cent, based on prices of a basket of basic foodstuffs.” Zimbabwe’s currency has become so devalued, the AP explained, that “a loaf of bread now costs what 12 new cars did a decade ago.”
No matter. Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN ambassador, argued that the targeted sanctions that the US and others wanted to impose on Mugabe’s clique exceeded the Security Council’s mandate. Mugabe’s campaign of murder and intimidation didn’t strike Churkin as “illegitimate and dangerous”, only the UN resolution to bring a halt to it was “illegitimate and dangerous.”
But when it comes to pure, rancid moral corruption, no one can top South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, and his stooge at the UN, Dumisani Kumalo. They have done everything they can to prevent any meaningful UN pressure on the Mugabe dictatorship.
So let us now coin the Mbeki Rule: When whites persecute blacks, no amount of UN sanctions is too much. And when blacks persecute blacks, any amount of UN sanctions is too much. Which brings me back to America. Perfect we are not, but America still has some moral backbone. There are travesties we will not tolerate. The UN vote on Zimbabwe demonstrates that this is not true for these “popular” countries – called Russia or China or South Africa – who have no problem siding with a man who is pulverising his own people.
So, yes, we’re not so popular in Europe and Asia anymore. I guess they would prefer a world in which America was weaker, where leaders with the values of Vladimir Putin and Thabo Mbeki had a greater say, and where the desperate voices for change in Zimbabwe would, well, just shut up....
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul182008/editpage2008071779404.asp
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