The senate voted earlier this month to drastically reduce the United States' share of the cost of United Nations peacekeeping missions. As if this were not enough of a blow to the peacekeeping body, the Bush administration now seeks to confirm John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, with a foreign relations panel vote scheduled for Tuesday. Regardless of intentions, the combination of the cutback and the appointment of an anti-diplomacy ambassador sends a stark message to the world community -that the United States remains uncommitted to cooperation with its allies, even to the extent of slowly withdrawing its support of the United Nations.
The financial cuts, amounting to tens of millions of dollars, are largely the result of congressional criticism of the United Nations, which is perhaps partially warranted. Mistrust amid allegations of mismanagement and corruption in the oil-for-food program, sexual abuse by peacekeepers and other scandals is understandable. However, simply cutting funding is not the way to bring about desired reform. The United States already possesses the clout needed to help usher in change; cutting funding conveys just the opposite of what is intended -that the United States is apathetic toward the problems that plague the United Nations and has no faith in its potential for improvement. The Bush administration seems to think that lessening the resources of the United Nations will solve its problems, where increasing its resources would actually give it more power to achieve its goals and account for its mistakes.
More offensive by far is the push to confirm Bolton as ambassador to the very body he seemingly despises. While his public service credentials are extensive, he is well known in the international community for maintaining no belief in the mission of the United Nations and similarly small faith in the concept of foreign diplomacy itself. All other considerations aside, he is obviously not the person for the job. The bluntness and derogatory remarks that characterize him, like his referring to North Korea's Communist government as an evil regime on the eve of what could have been breakthrough talks with Pyongyang, should disqualify him from a diplomatic position of such importance. He is slated for confirmation nonetheless. It will not require much scrutiny on the part of foreign leaders to discern the implications of such an appointment.
This comes at a time when the Bush administration is beginning to achieve its vision of a free Iraq, with an open election realized and the formation of a new government well underway. It has done all of this, however, while isolating the United States from its allies. The administration should show new resolve to garner some international cooperation in its second-term endeavors.
Overexposed?
In their effort to target the Total Xposure strip bar outside Troy in western Ohio, state liquor control agents gave the driver's license and Social Security number of an innocent woman to their own hire so that she could pose as a stripper there. In the end, they successfully closed the establishment. However, this fails to justify the means they used to secure their goal, and the entire ploy sets an ominous precedent of unrestricted political power in Ohio.
According to Miami County Prosecutor Gary Nasal, the process was legal because of, ironically enough, a 2002 change in state law actually aimed at helping law enforcement combat identity theft. The law includes a problematic provision that allows police to use a person's identity within the context of an investigation. The result, in this instance, has been a staggering misuse of the provision that calls into question the propriety of its inclusion in the law.
Supporters of the law do not condone the actions of the state agents and Troy police in this operation. Even Rep. Jim Hughes of Columbus, the Republican state representative who sponsored the legislation, has stated that the bill was never intended to be used in such a manner. David Dawson, the father of the woman whose identity was hijacked, decried the theft and said his daughter lives in Cincinnati and has never been a stripper.
The police paid a college student $100 a night for three months to pose as a stripper as they drank beer and allegedly monitored for illegal activity. Troy police looked on via the Internet with an online subscription they secured using the identity of a dead man.
Unfortunately, the agents' misuse of a young woman's identity cannot be properly dubbed a theft because of the law in question. In broadening police power to equip them with the tools necessary for fighting identity theft, state lawmakers have handed law enforcers the opportunity to commit that very crime in the rush to prevent others. The ultimate source of the problem, the law itself, should be reviewed to protect innocent people from being involved in matters of which they want no part.
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