Peace? Let's just pray for good sense

Published January 4, 2001 In Orlando Sentinel

By Charlie Reese

I wouldn't look for much peace in the coming year. The best Americans can hope for is that the United States, with a new administration, will have sense enough not to get involved in the various conflicts that are likely to rage on.

One place Americans would be wise to steer clear of is Afghanistan. The Clinton administration's hostility to the Taliban is most unwise. The Taliban won the civil war in Afghanistan. Who are we to say that it should not govern its own country as it sees fit?

We have no moral grounds for complaining that Afghanistan harbors terrorists. The United States also practices terrorism with bombs and missiles. We, too, have trained and armed men, including Afghans, to overthrow governments we didn't like. It's important for Americans to understand that what is will not always be. We need to be looking to the future and taking note that China just signed new military agreements with Cuba and that Russia just signed new military agreements with Iran.

In both cases, those agreements were signed despite the protests of the U.S. government. And in both cases, the details of those agreements have been kept secret from the U.S. government.

Arrogance is always dangerous, especially when it exceeds one's capability to back it up. The phrase "The world's last remaining superpower" is entirely misleading because it is based on our nuclear weapons. Their value is mainly as a deterrent. Having nukes and having the capability to be the world's policeman are two different things.

There are ongoing conflicts in South America, in Indonesia, in Africa, in Central Asia and in the Balkans. And you know what?

We don't have the capability or the moral or legal authority to end any of them. Meddling, under the illusion that the world is our responsibility, will bleed this empire dry and, like other empires that over-reached, destroy it.

We need to be especially careful not to get dragged into the multifactional war in Colombia. If ever a country had Vietnam written all over it, it is Colombia. The factions are many; the terrain is difficult; and our intervention likely would do nothing but remind Colombians that we once stole Panama from them.

As for the conflict in the Middle East, forget it. Unless Israel recognizes the right of Palestinian refugees to return or receive compensation, and unless Israel agrees to withdraw from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, there will be no peace. Not this year. Not 10 years from now. Not 50 years from now.

The only "deal" Palestinians will accept is justice. That's the price of peace, and at the moment Israel is unwilling to pay it.

If we simply would follow the advice of George Washington and respect the sovereignty of every nation, treat every nation with equal fairness and refrain from interfering in any nation's internal affairs or involving ourselves in its regional feuds, then most of our foreign-policy problems, including terrorism, would evaporate.

All of the nations of the world face common problems: population pressures, environmental degradation, uneven distribution of resources, poverty and disease. We should offer cooperation and resources in combating these and offer arms to no one.

That won't happen until the American people begin to think for themselves and to make themselves heard in matters of foreign policy.

Americans need to realize that they are not sheep to be led by "a wise elite." They are citizens who have a right to determine the affairs of their country.