US must review its foreign policy

Peter Espeut

VIOLENCE AND mayhem against you in return for the violence and mayhem you did to me, will only lead to an infinite series of reprisals, where the stakes continue to be raised, until the death toll is in the thousands and tens of thousands. This is why the Lex Talionis, demanding that reprisals should be limited to the same injury ­ one eye for one eye, one tooth for one tooth, and so on ­ was such a tremendous advance in moral philosophy.

But one thing humankind should have learnt by now is that "An eye for an eye" only leads to widespread blindness, and that other ways have to be found to right the wrongs which, sadly, form so much a part of our recent and distant history. I don't know who did it ­ or why ­ but last Tuesday's attack on New York and Washington DC was totally wrong and inexcusable.

Yes, it is true that the USA is not an innocent country; in the recent past they are guilty of doing much the same to others as was done to them. To capture one man ­ Manuel Noriega ­ they invaded Panama, bombing and killing thousands of innocent civilians. To expand US territory, they invaded the remaining Spanish colonies (Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines) in 1898. To protect American interests they invaded Haiti in 1915, the Dominican Republic in 1965, and through their military and the CIA have interfered in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile and Cuba (to name a few).

And then there was the debacle of the Vietnam War where tens of thousands of US troops participated in an armed conflict as 'observers', fighting a country against which they had not declared war. I could go on. These and other atrocities too numerous to mention the US has perpetrated all over the world, and they are wrong; and what was done to the US last Tuesday ­ no matter in reprisal for what is wrong. Clearly it was done as revenge for past actions of the US, but vengeance is not a substitute for justice, and is not a justifiable motive for this kind of violence.

With our gangland murders and reprisals, we also in Jamaica need to learn this lesson. The US is a great country, with a great democratic tradition at home, but it must be rational and ask itself why it has so many enemies all over the world. In particular, the US must ask itself whether it has treated the Arab nations of the world fairly, and in particular the Palesti-nians. The Jewish lobby in the US is strong, and US support for Israel has been unwavering, no matter what they do. I must declare that I am partly Jewish on both sides of my family, but this does not prevent me from seeing that US foreign policy on the Middle East has been driven more by special interests than by choice of the moral high ground.

Listening to the US cable channels, it does not appear that much rational thinking is going on in US government circles. The suicide bombers are being called cowards by US politicians as well as by the cheerleading US media. Which is more cowardly I ask you: to bomb from a distance, or to deliver the bomb yourself and be killed in the process?

Dastardly it certainly is, but cowardly it is not. The fact that the perpetrators were prepared to die to kill Americans shows how serious they consider their grievances to be.

The talk is of war, of continuing the spiral of violence. "They must be punished for what they did", is the jingoistic cry, "and those that give them sanctuary". President Bush, with the mindset of one of the biggest proponents of capital punishment in the USA, is not saying that he wants them brought before the courts. He says that the US will fight a war against terrorism ­ no matter how long ­ and the US will win! That, I am sorry to say, is the same argument for the terrorist campaigns of the IRA, ETA, the Shining Path, Hamas, and so many others; and it is not a winnable strategy. Using US military might to assassinate the perpetrators of last Tuesday's event is one thing, but have we not learnt that new terrorists will spring up in their places as long as the source of their grievance is not resolved?

If what we want is justice, then make no mistake: the perpetrators of mass murder must be punished. And that means all of them, including the American ones. What we need in this debate is the voice of reason, and a healthy dose of modern moral philosophy applied objectively and across the board. But sometimes the voice of reason is considered traitorous, for it doesn't always sing the same song as the warmongers.

Whatever material or 'collateral damage' took place last week (how does that sound applied to American lives?), the greatest injury seems to be to the pride of the only superpower left on our planet, and hurt pride can lead us to do silly things, and make serious mistakes.

I hope the US government is mature enough to swallow its spit and do the statesmanlike thing: which is to take a good look at its foreign policy and make the necessary changes.

The US is not used to war on the home front; after last week, the world will never be the same for them. You can never get used to war or to terrorism, but Europe took a long look at itself and its approach to empire after World War II, and made certain changes. The US will have to do the same.

The longer the US takes to send in their bombers, the more opportunity they have to think carefully and weigh their options. Their future (and to a great extent, our future) is in their hands. They can continue the spiral of violence, or they can try to right some of the wrongs of the past.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and executive director of an environment and development NGO.

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