North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il may be evil, as President George W. Bush
says, or he may be crazy but one thing is sure: He is scaring the world with
his nuclear ambitions.
The members of the United Nations, who have subsidized the North Korean
economy to ease the terrible food shortages there, are outraged that it has
funneled its limited resources into the costly development of a nuclear
missile and are threatening to withdraw their support. As in Iraq, the people
of North Korea are caught between the delusions of a mad dictator and their
basic subsistence needs.
An angry George W. Bush was fulminating on the broadcast media this morning
about North Korea's nuclear test but he must bear part of the responsibility
for Mr. Kim's acts. Bush was barely settled in the White House when he made
his famous speech calling North Korea part of the axis of evil. He has
continued to revile Kim Jong-Il throughout his administration. Seeing Bush
invade and occupy Iraq, another branch of the "Axis of Evil," one can
understand why Mr. Kim would be on his guard against Bush and the United
States and why he would want the ultimate weapon as his shield.
These leaders with their intemperate speeches are making a tense world
situation worse. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is another example. He
came to the United Nations and called Bush a devil. I enjoyed the speech and
if I believed in devils, Bush would certainly be near the top of the list.
Nevertheless I thought, "Uh-oh, here we go.
American leaders were mystified by the cheering in the U.N. for Chavez. Does
this indicate a willful ignorance of the antagonism that Bush has planted
throughout the world with his rigid views? Is it not American ignorance but
its hubris and sense of entitlement that drive the rest of the world crazy?
How dare a country threatened by us arm itself? How dare an oil-rich country
in the Western Hemisphere defy the hegemony that the United States is trying
to impose? Mr. Kim may be insane, a dictator and perhaps even evil but he is
right to believe that the presence of an atomic bomb will keep America from
invading North Korea and destroying its infrastructure as it did in Iraq. Now
Bush can say what he wants but he will keep his sword in its scabbard rather
than lift a hand against North Korea.
As children we learned the rhyme, "Sticks and stones will break my bones but
words will never hurt me." Yet Bush travels around the country acting like the
hotheaded Montoya in the movie The Princess Bride: "Hello, my name is Inigo
Montoya you killed my father, prepare to die!" What logic is there in sending
the bombastic John Bolton to represent the United States in the United
Nations? It is a strange way to conduct our foreign policy. Bush should not
have started his administration with saber rattling. We are the most powerful
nation in the world. We have the most nuclear weapons. We could blow up the
whole world in minutes. Is it impossible to think that all of these
over-armed, testosterone-driven, so-called leaders could lay set aside their
egos and think of the innocent people who live in their countries?
Not a day passes that Bush doesn't make a speech about protecting the American
people. Today, his approval ratings are scraping the bottom of the barrel and
may threaten the chances of the GOP in the fall elections. I can only wonder
that it has taken the people of the United States six years to figure it out.
Perhaps we are like the Titanic, seemingly unsinkable but incapable of turning
around in time to avoid an iceberg.
The iceberg is before us. More than 3000 Americans have died in Iraq and
Afghanistan, more than the 2,973 who died in the terrorist attacks on
September 11, 2001: There is no end in sight. We have spent more than $500
billion in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like every pacifist before me, I must ask:
Why is there always a deep pocket for waging war but never enough for schools,
after-school programs, and job-training? It is estimated that 100,000 Iraqis
have died since the beginning of the war; the Iraqi economy and infrastructure
have been destroyed. If you destroy these elements of a society you create an
enemy of unimaginable proportions because you are destroying the dreams of the
young and breaking the hearts of the old. Yet we criticize North Korea for
spending its limited funds on a nuclear weapon while its people are starving.
Today the danger in the world has multiplied exponentially. North Korea could
give nuclear technology to our enemies; the idea of this technology in the
hands of the unstable Mr. Kim is truly frightening. In an interview today on
National Public Radio, Ambassador Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of
state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, says that Korea failed to understand
its future. Perhaps if the Bush administration hadn't been so busy touting its
omnipotence, we would have a better chance of having a future.
Rosa Maria Pegueros is an Associate Professor of Latin American History and
Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island. To contact her, write to
pegueros@uri.edu
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