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Cato Daily Dispatch for August 22, 2003

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(Links to outside sources were active as of the date of this dispatch; however, not all news sources maintain links to current stories indefinitely. Some links also may require registration.)

Meanwhile, Back in the Drug War, Talk of U.S. "Realignment"

Reuters reports that "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said today that the United States and Latin America faced 'a terrible problem' from terrorism and drug trafficking and suggested that American forces might be realigned in Central and South America.

"Mr. Rumsfeld told American troops stationed at nearby Soto Cano Air Base that he and senior United States military officers would be discussing possible realignment of the American military presence in Latin America in coming weeks."

The Cato Institute has produced a wealth of books and policy papers detailing the United States government's flawed and destructive approach to fighting drug use in the U.S. and abroad.

Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for foreign policy and defense studies, writes in "Unsavory Bedfellows: Washington's International Partners in the War on Drugs" that "instead of accepting the reality that a prohibitionist strategy is inherently futile, U.S. administrations have compromised important American values and helped strengthen corrupt, repressive governments."

Carpenter is also the author of "Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America" (2003), which Foreign Affairs magazine described as "A refreshingly candid, controversial, and hard-hitting assessment of Washington's ...campaign against illegal drugs."

Middle East Peace "Roadmap" Looking Crumpled

"As if the news from Iraq this week wasn't bad enough for the Bush administration, by Thursday the President's Middle East peace 'roadmap' appears to be on the verge of collapse," reports TIME. "Hamas and Islamic Jihad were stating the obvious in their announcement that their truce with Israel is dead, and with it may go the government of Mahmoud Abbas."

In "Reshaping the Map of the Middle East", the Cato Institute's Stanley Kober, research fellow in foreign policy studies, writes that the United States' hopes of establishing peace in the Middle East will be even harder to maintain in the aftermath of the Iraq war. "The war in Iraq will reshape the map of the Middle East," he writes. "The Bush administration has proclaimed its intention to establish Iraq as a model for regional transformation toward democracy.

"This transformation is designed, in part, to facilitate resolution of the conflict with Israel. 'Old patterns of conflict in the Middle East can be broken, if all concerned will let go of bitterness, hatred, and violence, and get on with the serious work of economic development, and political reform, and reconciliation,' President Bush declared on February 26. 'America will seize every opportunity in pursuit of peace. And the end of the present regime in Iraq would create such an opportunity.'

"Just as the Jews who returned to Israel after centuries of dispersion felt they had a right to the land, so do the Palestinians. Indeed, the language of rights, which underpins our understanding of civil society in a democracy, is also the language of war .... Once people talk about their rights, they are no longer talking about political compromise. A right must be guaranteed in full, or it is not truly a right.

"The United States will encounter many problems in the aftermath of the Iraq war. It should be under no illusion that bringing democracy to the Middle East will, by itself, change the conviction of people regarding the sanctity of their fundamental rights. And so long as the conflict involves a confrontation of irreconcilable rights, it is bound to endure."

U.S. Presses U.N. for Iraq Help

"Using the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad as a rallying cry, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell sought today to build support for a new Security Council resolution that would persuade other major nations to contribute more troops and aid to secure and rebuild Iraq under the aegis of the American-led occupation," reports The New York Times.

According to the Cato Institute's director of foreign policy studies, Christopher Preble, the United States should welcome aid from the United Nations if "it's on our timeline." "The Bush administration claimed that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the United States," Preble writes in "The U.N.'s Role in Post-War Iraq". "His regime is destroyed. The threat, therefore, is eliminated. The Bush administration should remain focused on ending the military occupation and on turning the government of Iraq over to the Iraqi people as quickly as possible. If the member states of the United Nations can help, and if they can do so on our timeline, we should let them. If not, we should tell them to mind their own business."

In June, Preble wrote a Policy Analysis, "After Victory: Toward a New Military Posture in the Persian Gulf", in which he detailed a strategy for the U.S. to greatly reduce its presence in the Middle East in light of the post-Iraq war environment.

Christopher Kilmer, editor, ckilmer@cato.org