He's gone crazy I tell ya! Rush ate Ed Koch's brain! :)
The N.Y. Times on unilateral
U.S. action: Sudan yes, Iraq no
By Ed Koch
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, July 9, 2004
The New York Times editorial page has repeatedly castigated President Bush for his willingness to go to war with Iraq because he continues to believe, as I do, that Iraq failed to account for weapons of mass destruction; that Iraq was an imminent threat to its neighbors and a foreseeable danger to the U.S.; that Saddam Hussein was a vicious despot who had tortured and murdered his own people and his neighbors using poison gas, among other terrible crimes; and that the removal of such a dangerous and oppressive tyrant would promote positive change in the entire region.
The New York Times did not find any of these reasons sufficient for the U.S., Great Britain, and the coalition forces to wage war against Iraq without being authorized to do so by the U.N. So it was a surprise when The Times published an editorial on July 3, advocating unilateral action to relieve the human rights catastrophe in Sudan. Action against the Sudanese government is certainly warranted, but is it more warranted than the action we have taken in Iraq? Relevant excerpts from The Times editorial follow and are well worth reading:
“The growing disaster in the Darfur region of Sudan, which may have already killed as many people as have died in the fighting in Iraq over the last year and a quarter, demands that Secretary of State Colin Powell and the U.N. secretary general, Kofi Annan, go beyond the kind of welcome but government-manipulated visits we saw this week. Without tough and immediate actions by Washington and the U.N. Security Council, a half-million people or more could die before the end of the year from Sudanese government-sponsored attacks and the starvation and disease that inevitably follow.”
It went on, “Any illusion that Sudan’s leaders are now prepared to act responsibly without being compelled to do so should have been dispelled by their cruel and cynical behavior during the Powell and Annan visits.
“The Bush administration has been far too timid in proposing punitive sanctions only for Janjaweed leaders. That remains the main thrust of a Security Council resolution that Washington is circulating. It would be much more effective to put direct pressure on the leaders of Sudan’s government, who can shut down the attacks quickly.
“The Security Council remains divided between the Sudanese government’s critics and apologists and has been unwilling to take strong action.
“If the Security Council still refuses to act, the United States, the European Union and the African countries that assert a claim to continental leadership, like Nigeria and South Africa, should work together to convince Sudan’s leaders that their government will become a pariah if it does not stop what looks increasingly like genocide in Darfur.”
If those measures do not accomplish the goal of protecting by some estimates one million people from genocide and thousands from enslavement, is there any doubt that The Times would endorse unilateral military action by the U.S.? I would.
Edward I. Koch, who served as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989, is a partner in the law firm of Bryan Cave. |
