Sunday, June 29, 2003



Satire or prophecy?

The Bush administration seems to be getting its foreign policy from The Onion these days, with Rumsfeld's suggestion to form a world peacekeeping force - under US (rather than UN) control.

The chief purpose of such a force would be to do the dirty job of occupying countries that the US has knocked over, like Iraq. In other words, getting foreigners to die in the place of US soldiers.

While I think there's a role for a dedicated international peacekeeping force, it should be under the control of the legitimate international authority (the UN) rather than the hegemon, and should be used for actual peacekeeping, rather than as a foreign occupation force for countries that don't want to be occupied. Timor, not Iraq or Palestine.

The rest of the world should tell Rumsfeld where to go, and make their contributions (if any) via the UN, rather than signing up to enforce a US global order.

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