01 4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, January 15, 2003 OP/ED ,01z £iteuxia~ 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JON SCHWARTZ Editor in Chief JOHANNA HANINK Editorial Page Editor NOTABLE QUOTABLE " What Toronto is doing is obscene. They're sending a suicide ballet down those highways." Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. SAM BUTLER TrH. SOAPBOX c .Ad grind kurs~aP 'v\a CA Vt.s+'OAovn Le4L& 4"1V ~ 4 - i Vh WS c~tSo.S c .a-,U4.toVl t~e herknos --ift ot oace.Ne rp w~nd 0 b,o!Nofi-1e ! Very ,o-K o l ;,l toedou -lec~sprie o 15°Ia' M o e rI 6~ E0co/ f - Sarnia, Ontario Mayor Mike Bradley on Toronto's daily trucking of trash into Michigan, as quoted in yesterday's Detroit News. The truck drivers' new route cuts through downtown Detroit. One man's defense of the multilateral ideal ZAC PESKOWITZ Ti- LOWER FREQUENCIES M ultilateralism thing 'unilateral."' Krauthammer, meanwhile, descriptive and possesses a normative moral is a word levied his attack against the United Nations' meaning. These phrases should also serve the filled with Security Council. "How exactly does the Secu- dual purpose of identifying the specific ideals gush. How could you be rity Council confer moral authority on Ameri- desired through multilateral action. Perhaps against it? The images can action? The Security Council is a "Wilsonian collaboration" for those with of collaboration, coop- committee of great powers, heirs to the victors utopian dreams or "Kristolian cooperation" for eration and international in the Second World War. They manage the the neoconservative proponents of democracy. harmony float into world in their own interest." For those with economic interests, "Prebischi- one's mind as its seven In the concrete sense of the word, an internationalism" could indicate moral syllables gently draw Krauthammer and Hitchens are obviously cor- action for dependencia theorists. "Friedmanite themselves out. It rings with the tone of pros- rect. However, the object of their attack is a concurrence" would be the best phrase for perity, tranquility and progress. If you support straw man. While arguing the merits of multi- rabid free-marketers' views in the international a proposal, elevate it with the accolade of mul- lateralism in the narrow sense is a fruitless sector. Support for multilateralism is not an tilateralism. If you're against a policy, tarnish process, multilateralism can hold a much ideological position and anyone with an inter- it with the brand of unilateralism. broader meaning. The possibility of a global est in foreign relations should recognize that Despite the power of the word and its cen- forum for the adjudication of disputes, free- no one position holds a monopoly on the moral trality in innumerable foreign policy debates, it dom of movement for all peoples and a world force of international action. means practically nothing. If your state pos- free from conflict are the ideal ends of multi- In the dark winter of 1940, Great Britain sesses colonial ambitions simply find a few lateral actions. The supporters of this multilat- faced a Europe controlled by its enemies. From other mini-states to join along in your imperial eral ideal bear much of the responsibility for the Urals to Gibraltar, the Nazis, its allies and its conquest. Presto! Multilateralism. It's clear the word's latent contradictions. occupied territories stretched across the conti- that the quality of multilateralism is a useless Leftists are eager to denounce the United nent. The German betrayal of the USSR and the tool for reaching a moral judgment of a specif- States' withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol United States' entry into World War II would ic policy. And as both domestic and foreign and the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and the eventually give Britain allies, but in 1940 liberals have attacked the United States as a refusal to join the International Criminal Britain unilaterally stood against fascism. With- unilateral bully, realists and interventionists Court and the international land mine treaty. in a span of six decades, much of the European have responded, exposing multilateralism as a But when multilateral initiatives are a source continent would resemble a well-organized vacuous bogey. of opprobrium their cooperative aspects are state. The potential for inter-state conflict and Charles Krauthammer and Christopher neglected. The North American Free Trade nationalist angst that marked Europe's first half Hitchens, two men who represent the current Agreement, the World Trade Organization of the 20th century has been diffused. Through zeitgist quite well, have sunk their teeth into and the International Monetary Fund are, of the formation of trade pacts, legal bodies and a multilateralism. As Hitchens wrote in Slate, course, multilateral institutions, but you can currency union, Europe has achieved many of "The most dada version of the dilemma was find the self-styled supporters of multilateral- the goals of Woodrow Wilson. Perhaps the best stated by Sen. Tom Daschle, who for weeks ism advocating unilateral withdrawal from way to achieve this multilateral ideal tomorrow appeared to say that if only more people would these institutions. Unilateralism is not a seri- is to act unilaterally today. endorse the president's policy, whey then, he ous reason for opposing a particular interna- might be induced to support it himself! But in tional action. Zac Peskowitz can be reached the meanwhile, he could only frown upon any- We need a word or phrase that is less atzpeskowi@umich.edu. VIEWPOINT United States should concede nothing to North Korea BY MIKI SALTSMAN North Korea announced Friday that it was done with the Nuclear Non-Prolifera- tion Treaty. "We're pulling out" is the word from Pyongyang - now the ball is in our court. Add this to the recent discovery that Pyongyang has secretly rebooted its nuclear program and the North Korean claim that it can match the United States in a "fire-to-fire" standoff. In all but threaten- ing a World War III, North Korea seems to have really given itself a stacked deck in the game of international relations. So where is former President Jimmy Carter when you really need him? Shouldn't we be working the diplomatic back channels, trying to keep North Korea from acting as a rouge nation? We already sent Carter over to North Korea a few years back, ready and willing to dole out plenty of foreign aid if it will promise not to develop any more nuclear weapons. Since that agreement, it has backed out on many of the terms, and the United States has used even more foreign aid to try to coax it back in to the agreement. Carter's agreed framework turned out to be a fail- ure. We even reduced economic sanctions on the country in the year 2000. So, why not just continue to "work" with them, and send out some more aid? Because, to use an analogy, this would be like buying a brand new car for a teenage son who just wrecked your previous three. We cannot continue to give North Korea aid without some assurance that it will comply with its end of the bargain. The sad part of this whole crisis is that North Korea claims that this is the fault of the United States. Our "aggressive posture" is what caused it to pull out of the NPT, and furthermore to kick out United Nations inspection teams last month. So what is to be done here? If the mat- ter goes to the U.N. Security Council, North Korea could be faced with deep eco- nomic sanctions. But the problem with sanctions in a country like North Korea is that they don't hurt the bad guys - they hurt the civilians, the citizens who are being oppressed, while the oppressor con- tinues to prosper. No, our real solution is going to require a cost on President Bush's part. He needs to go on the record, on tele- vision, in the paper - somewhere public. He needs to let North Korea know that this behavior is not acceptable and that the United States will not tolerate its actions. Basically, Bush needs to call the North Koreans' bluff. I'm not so eager to see Bush commit our country to any sort of military action in North Korea, especially with the conflict we currently have in Iraq. The question here is, will there even be a need for mili- tary action? Here is a country that had rat- tled its saber many times in the past, and on each occurrence we immediately come running with concessions. North Korea is misbehaving because it knows that this behavior works. Conceding anything to this government is not going to be a good fix, because we will find ourselves in this same situation a few years down the road. It's time for the United States to cut the proverbial crap and let North Korea know we mean business when it comes to nuclear weapons control. Saltsman is an LSA sophomore. VIEWPOINT Jerusalem: A city for peace BY SOL ADELSKY This past winter break, I was sitting in a conference room in the Old City of Jerusalem with a group of people, listening intently to a speaker. Suddenly, I heard a boom outside. Everyone froze. Chills began to run down my spine. Could it be? Is it possible? My mind began dashing from thought to thought- could I really be so close to a terrorist attack? Did a genocide bomber really strike within yards of where I was? A tense 30 seconds passed. Then the rain began to fall, and with its increasingly frequent tapping on the roof, a very audible sigh of relief was heard from everyone in the room. Smiles broke out, and the lecture continued. As an American Jew, I always hear about what happens in Israel, the multitude of endless terror attacks that are still occur- ring throughout Israel. However, I never thought it was possible that I could be liter- ally right next to one. only emotionally but also economically. For example, one day while in Israel I journeyed over to Ben Yehuda Street, the most popular and well known shopping district in Jerusalem, comparable to Fifth Avenue of New York City. What did I see? Emptiness and shops going out of business. When I had been there a mere three years earlier, the area had been bustling with people and action. After a bombing of a Sbarro's Pizzeria, among other shops in the area, tourists are afraid to go shopping there, and the shop owners are desperate for business. When I went into a T-shirt store, I asked for a better price on a T-shirt. Three years ago, before the most recent wave of terror attacks, the shop owner would most likely have given me a lower price. Instead, the woman behind the counter looked back at me with cold, pleading eyes and responded that she simply could not give me a better price. Every shekel means the world to these shop owners, who are struggling to make a living. village with a friend to go hiking. After she shared her experiences with us and discussed how she was grieving, somebody asked her how she feels about the people who committed this heinous crime against her. She responded simply that she does not hate the Palestinian peo- ple, and all she wants is peace. What is so special is that Sherry Mandel's mentality is commonplace in Israel. It is admirable that a people who are so viciously and sys- tematically attacked and murdered still seek peace. Sherry Mandel's statement is so vital in the Israeli-Arab conflict. It highlights the core difference between Israel and her attackers: Israel wants peace, and only peace. After endless terror attacks, the first and fundamental step to peace is for the Palestinian leadership to call for and actual- ly stop all terror attacks. The Palestinian leadership needs to stop acting in front of the media as if it wants peace and then con- tinues to let its known and identified terror- ists roam the streets and continue to plan THE BOONDOCKS AARON McGRU.DER A NE 4W Nn/fME WARNiER POLL SAYS TWENTY I