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Welcome to USAGOLD's "Gilded
Opinion" pages.
We invite you to browse our index
of outstanding gold-based commentary.
(Back to Holger Jensen Index)
While we find Mr. Jensen's columns particularly informative with respect to foreign affairs, his opinions do not necessarily represent those of Centennial Precious Metals, USAGOLD, its management and clientele.
INSIDE FOREIGN AFFAIRS
September 11 attacks changed
Bush policies
by Holger Jensen, International Editor
Not long ago President Bush was tearing up treaties, distancing himself from Mideast peacemaking and dismaying friend and foe alike with his dogged determination to build a missile defense system.
He didn't know who ran Pakistan -- "general someone or other" -- and called the Greeks "Grecians."
Colin Powell's voice was so seldom heard in the corridors of power that Time magazine openly wondered if the secretary of state -- our chief diplomat in charge of engagement abroad -- had been eclipsed by isolationists bent on disengagement.
What the White House called "a la carte multilateralism" others saw as an arrogant, if-you-don't-like-it-lump-it unilateralism that angered Russia and China, unnverved European allies and caused Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, D-Del., to bemoan Bush's "splendid indifference to the rest of the world."
One day before the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Biden made a speech to the National Press Club in Washington urging the president to reconsider his single-minded obsession with missile defense.
The horrific events of the following day forced Bush to do just that. Not only did he suddenly need foreign allies for his global war on terrorism, he had to reassess military priorities and establish what Powell called a "new benchmark" for determining friend from foe.
This is not to say that Bush backed off missile defense. He remains as committed as ever. But Star Wars II seems less important now than bioterrorism, shifting America's military focus from Europe to Asia and creating a leaner, meaner and more mobile army capable of hunting down the likes of al-Qaida.
So what has Bush done to win friends and influence people abroad?
One of his first actions was to fast-track the payment of past dues to the United Nations, stalled for years by disagreement over the amount owed and congressional hooks linking repayment to domestic political footballs such as abortion. Bush is not only paying off $1.67 billion worth of arrears by the end of the year, he is pushing for the world body to take over "nation-building" in Afghanistan once the U.S. military campaign is over.
Congress obligingly unhooked the U.N. money from other legislation, meaning fewer hurdles. And the Senate rushed through a confirmation hearing for U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte, whose nomination it had held up for six months but approved within three days of the Sept. 11 attacks.
As a result, the United Nations will be in its best financial shape in many years, with members paying a record $4.7 billion in dues and peacekeeping assessments this year compared with $2.8 billion last year. It will be able to reimburse 48 countries awaiting payment of $505 million for past peacekeeping operations and establish a $150 million reserve fund for future operations -- with an eye on Afghanistan.
Bush will elaborate on his "nation-building" vision when he addresses the General Assembly Nov. 10.
Bush has showered aid on Pakistan, until recently the house pariah sanctioned by the Clinton administration for its military coup and nuclear tests. Sanctions have been waived and administration officials are working on a billion-dollar aid package that includes debt relief, trade concessions and Washington's support for international loans.
Relations with India have improved and there is talk of U.S. mediation in its conflict with Pakistan over Kashmir.
The White House is consulting Congress about removing Russia and six other former Soviet republics from the list of countries that must prove they do not restrict emigration before they can have normal trade relations with the United States. This dates to the Jackson-Vanik amendment of 1974, when the Soviet Union and its now-independent republics were communist.
The requirement to pass the annual test has been a major irritant to Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine, even though they have all been certified in recent years. Removing it, said one administration official, would be a "gesture of goodwill" toward Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There have been many such gestures. Putin has become such a staunch ally in Bush's coalition against terrorism -- opening Central Asian bases and airspace to the U.S. military, closing the Russian spy base in Cuba -- that he and Bush are engaged in a veritable lovefest.
After essentially telling the Russians he was going to scrap the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty whether they liked it or not, Bush and Putin now agree there's "wiggle room."
And Washington has stopped criticizing Russian actions in Chechnya. It recently demanded that the Muslim rebels there sever links with "international terrorist groups," language Putin had long wanted to hear.
The Spanish head of NATO's 19-member Parliamentary Assembly, Rafael Estrella, observes that the two powers are cooperating so closely against a common enemy "there's no reason why Russia should not become a member of NATO." Bush wouldn't have heard of it two months ago.
China too has gone from "strategic competitor" to "partner" in the war on terrorism. Its reward: Strikingly less criticism of Chinese suppression of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang Province.
Last year, the State Department's annual report on religious freedoms around the world accurately described a "harsh crackdown on Uighur Muslims that failed to distinguish between those involved with illegal religious activities and those involved in ethnic separatism of terrorist activities."
This year's report, released last week, merely noted that "government sensitivity to Muslim community concerns is varied." Executions and arbitrary arrests are not mentioned.
Human Rights Watch notes that this year's report deliberately excludes Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan as "Countries of Particular Concern." Under the Religious Freedom Act, countries so designated are subject to U.S. reprisals ranging from diplomatic pressure to sanctions.
"Clearly the administration doesn't want to offend key allies in the coalition through excessive truth-telling," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for HRW. "The irony is that getting too close to countries that crush religious freedom may be more dangerous for America right now than keeping its distance -- particularly when the religion being crushed is Islam."
November 1, 2001
Q&A with Holger Jensen: What sanctions are against Iraq?
Question: What exactly are the sanctions against Iraq? I have heard that there are no sanctions for food and medicine. If this is true, how can people say we are to blame for Iraqi deaths?
Answer: International sanctions barring all commerce including the sale of Iraqi oil were imposed after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. They slowed repairs to Iraq's bombed-out water, power and sewerage systems, contributing to the spread of pestilence and disease. They also caused severe shortages of medicine and food, resulting in sharp price increases that most Iraqis could not afford. They starved while the rich, including Saddam's family and friends, did not.
A U.N. report issued in 1995 said food prices had risen 8,500 percent, the average monthly salary of 3,500 Iraqi dinars (then $6) could not even buy a kilo of powdered milk, and 23 percent of children under the age of 5 were malnourished. State employees could get free government rations, but these had been cut from 75 percent to 50 percent of minimum human calory requirements.
To head off a humanitarian disaster, the U.N. relaxed the embargo in December 1996 with an "oil-for-food program" that allowed Saddam to sell $2 billion worth of oil every six months for purchases of food and medicine. This has since been increased to $5.26 billion. The trouble is that while the U.N. oversees the oil sales and Baghdad's purchases, Saddam's government controls the distribution. Much of the food is still not affordable to the average Iraqi family, and medicines are often smuggled out by Saddam's inner circle for resale in Jordan.
In 1998, UNICEF reported that chronic malnutrition and death rates for children under 5 had increased 70 percent since 1991.
Iraq claims 1.5 million people, three-quarters of them children, have died because of sanctions. The figure is undoubtedly inflated, but UNICEF confirms that a half million children under 5 have died and one in four Iraqi children is "chronically malnourished." And the most recent report of the International Committee of the Red Cross says "deteriorating living conditions make people's everyday lives a continuing struggle, while food shortages, lack of medicines and clean drinking water threaten their very survival."
Obviously Saddam's disregard for his own people -- as well as his refusal to comply with U.N. weapons inspections and other requirements for the lifting of sanctions -- is as much to blame as the sanctions themselves. But that does not dispel a worldwide perception that we are punishing helpless Iraqis for Saddam's sins.
The point of sanctions was to make them so unhappy with Saddam that they would eventually rise up and overthrow him. That rarely works in a police state. ---October 30, 2001
Send your questions about the war on terrorism to international editor Holger Jensen, who will answer one each day. E-mail: hjens@aol.com
Copyright © 2001 The E.W. Scripps Co. All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted by USAGOLD with permission of Mr. Jensen. No further reproduction without permission.
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