By not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, pulling out of the Anti-Ballastic Missle Treaty, and rejecting the Internationl Criminal Court, Dubya managed to piss off both domestic and foreign multilateralists. (That's okay, since it seems to be his mission in life.) But, listening to neo-conservative rhetoric, you'd think that this is the best thing to happen since Reagan was cast in last starring role. Even the sacred Geneva Convention of recent memory doesn't apply when it's inconvenient, and damn the rest of the world. Although, the Geneva Convention is still trotted out when paramilitary forces in Iraq pull the oldest trick in the book and pretend to surrender to US soldiers hopped up on homegrown propaganda. (This is not to say that civilians car-bombing soldiers or anybody torturing POWs is covered by the Geneva Convention: it's not.) Meanwhile, it doesn't look like Russia (our new ideological ally) is going to sign the Kyoto Protocol either. Hélas. Maybe John O'Farell is right, and we should just privatize war.
Posted by jim at April 6, 2003 07:30 AM