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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (153591)	10/18/2002 12:42:42 PM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1580282

U.S. hypocrisy revealed Fri Oct 18, 7:46 AM ET Medea Benjamin The recent revelation that North Korea (news - web sites) has violated agreements with both the United States and South Korea (news - web sites) by failing to end its nuclear program is being interpreted by some as strengthening the hand of the Bush administration to attack Iraq. These rogue, erratic states that comprise the infamous ''axis of evil'' obviously cannot be trusted, some say, so let's stop pussyfooting around and just knock 'em out. But rather than strengthen the argument for military solutions, the new complication in North Korea actually points out the absurdity of seeking military solutions. The U.S. military is well aware of the horrendous costs of a war with North Korea, and this has, in the past, tempered the military option. Perhaps this is also why the immediate U.S. response has been measured and reasoned, seeking help from our allies in the region to find a peaceful resolution. But what sense does it make to have a foreign policy that says we'll negotiate with North Korea, a state that is conceivably more of a threat because it already has such weapons, but we'll pre-emptively strike Iraq because we think it might be developing these weapons? Unfortunately, many countries around the world have or are developing weapons of mass destruction. We can't possibly go around the world waging selective pre-emptive strikes against them. That would indeed not only signal perpetual war, but also global destruction as attacked nations unleash their deadly weapons on our allies and on us. We must also remember that our goal right now should be to break up the terrorist network that attacked us on Sept. 11, not be the unilateral global vigilante. The only solution to dealing with Iraq and North Korea is to use diplomacy, regional pressure and the United Nations (news - web sites) as ways to press for disarmament. Moreover, we cannot ask countries to selectively disarm. In areas of intense conflict, such as the Middle East and East Asia, there must be regional disarmament. Finally, we can't continue to say that other countries must not develop weapons of mass destruction while we, by far the mightiest military power in the world, continue to refine these deadly weapons. In fact, we are now developing more ''usable'' nuclear weapons and have outlined a scenario for their use against Iraq. To make the world safe from weapons of mass destruction, the United States must begin to live by the same set of rules we would like to impose on others and seriously embark on a course that will truly lead us to a nuclear weapons-free world. Medea Benjamin is founding director of the human-rights group Global Exchange, based in San Francisco.