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Last
summer at a Harvard commencement address, the revered long-time senator and
Harvard professor Daniel Patrick Moynihan gave some very practical advice.
“As we fight against evil,” he said, “we must also wage peace,
guided by the lessons of the Marshall Plan: vision and generosity can help
make the world a safer place.”
Moynihan recently passed away, but his lesson is one that should live on with
us, as a nation. This should act as a guide to the future, suggesting that
humanitarian aid to Iraq, conducted under the auspices of the United Nations,
should be the way to jumpstart the recovery of Iraq’s economy after the
current hostilities have ceased.
Many may question not the humanitarian aid, but the role of the United Nations
in leading this effort. At this point, it might seem very difficult to recall,
but one of the central foreign policy themes in George W. Bush’s presidential
campaign was the importance of the U.S. alliances. Said campaigner Bush, “All
our goals in Eurasia will depend on America strengthening the alliances that
sustain our influence. … Partners, not satellites.”
Because of differences in bringing new leadership to Iraq, it would ill serve
U.S. interests if we proceeded to deny a leadership role to the United Nations
in bringing humanitarian aid to Iraq.
What happened in South Carolina is a good example of the unintended consequences
of such actions.
In February, the South Carolina Legislature took up a resolution calling for
a boycott of French products because of France’s opposition to Bush’s
Iraq policy. The legislators complained that France’s policy was giving
“aid and comfort” to Saddam Hussein.
It turned out that the French-owned Michelin tire company could have been
one of the chief companies affected. And it also turned out that many of the
Michelin tires sold in the United States are made in factories all across
South Carolina.
Said South Carolina Commerce Secretary Bob Faith: “You might be putting
your neighbor out of work. The global economy is so interconnected today,
you’d be shooting yourself in the foot.” With this information,
the state lawmakers backed down, and the state Senate never even took up the
measure.
This small incident reveals the close economic dependency of all the developed
world, one country with another. As observed by economist Jeff Madrick in
the New York Times: “Yes, the U.S. economy is the most powerful and the
wealthiest. But to support its growth, it must attract hundreds of billions
of dollars of the world’s savings, much of it from Europe. It imports
far more than it exports. Many of its best companies are dependent on foreign
markets, simultaneously exporting products and importing parts and supplies.
… Unilateral bravado on any nation’s part is misplaced and will
be costly.”
A punishing reversal of long-term trends toward more extensive economic globalization
and freer trade might well be an unlooked-for result of the current differences
over Iraq’s future. In the contemporary world, there is no successful
going-it-alone.
The continued U.S. economic downturn brought on in part by the Iraqi war has
caused an increase in U.S. unemployment. The economy has lost 600,000 jobs
since last November and fully 2 million since President Bush took office.
It might be, if we followed Moynihan’s sage advice, the world not only
will be safer, but also far more prosperous.
We seniors, along with the rest of the population, sure could enjoy such a
state of affairs. The more folks work, the more monies move into the Social
Security fund, to say the least.
Ted
Ruhig is well-known in Sacramento for his tireless advocacy for proposals
designed to help seniors live long, happy, full lives. He has held leadership
roles in several advocacy groups and on government advisory boards. Ruhig
once sued the California Department of Aging for age discrimination, and won!
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