The Dartmouth Observer |
|
|
Commentary on politics, history, culture, and literature by two Dartmouth graduates and their buddies
WHO WE ARE Chien Wen Kung graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004 and majored in History and English. He is currently a civil servant in Singapore. Someday, he hopes to pursue a PhD in History. John Stevenson graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a BA in Government and War and Peace Studies. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He hopes to pursue a career in teaching and research. Kwame A. Holmes did not graduate from Dartmouth. However, after graduating from Florida A+M University in 2003, he began a doctorate in history at the University of Illinois--Urbana Champaign. Having moved to Chicago to write a dissertation on Black-Gay-Urban life in Washington D.C., he attached himself to the leg of John Stevenson and is thrilled to sporadically blog on the Dartmouth Observer. Feel free to email him comments, criticisms, spelling/grammar suggestions. BLOGS/WEBSITES WE READ The American Scene Arts & Letters Daily Agenda Gap Stephen Bainbridge Jack Balkin Becker and Posner Belgravia Dispatch Black Prof The Corner Demosthenes Daniel Drezner Five Rupees Free Dartmouth Galley Slaves Instapundit Mickey Kaus The Little Green Blog Left2Right Joe Malchow Josh Marshall OxBlog Bradford Plumer Political Theory Daily Info Andrew Samwick Right Reason Andrew Seal Andrew Sullivan Supreme Court Blog Tapped Tech Central Station UChicago Law Faculty Blog Volokh Conspiracy Washington Monthly Winds of Change Matthew Yglesias ARCHIVES BOOKS WE'RE READING CW's Books John's Books STUFF Site Feed    |
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Oh, come on already John Stevenson writes: This is a post for all those who think that the US should listen to the UN. I will ask now, and continue to ask, why should we listen to a group of slave-owning thugs and crackpot dictators about how to conduct our international affairs. I ask myself (and John) - is this really a sound argument? Self says "not a chance in hell." I hope John thinks so, too. The reason being, very simply, that just because other nations fail to live up to the international laws (and yes, sometimes even common morality) promulgated by the United Nations is no reason that we should join them in their lawlessness. It is our mistake to embrace states like Syria, yes, and it shows how this country sometimes does not practice what it preaches. That is no excuse for us to throw out our norms altogether, rather it is an example of why we should push harder to live up to them - starting by not defying the United Nations and essentially breaking the treaty we signed (aka, the UN Charter). If Iraq defies the UN inspectors again, we will have a legitimate grievance. As long as the inspectors have unfettered access, we have no grounds for war. If you wish to argue our grounds are to liberate the Iraqi people, we can start by liberating any number of other countries that are in equally dire straits and do not pose such a foreign relations problem at this time. In the meantime, our military has better things to do. They can start by buttressing Afghanistan so we have a strong ally and example of the good will the US can bring to other nations, rather than the cowboy style of government this administration so enjoys. Of course, one could confront the statement in a more facile way by asking why we allow racists, bigots, neo-Nazis, homophobes, and other assorted bozos to be enfranchised in this country, helping to decide how we conduct ALL our affairs. A democratic system is a democratic system, bad with good. |