Bush's fire

Bush's fire

The destructive strategy of the Bush administration is neutering the eu. It is also threatening the underpinnings of multilateralism that have held sway over global politics since the formation of the United Nations. Within the us, the Bush strategy is apparent in the administration's successful efforts to dramatically shrink the role of the government in every domestic arena (except for issues related to the military and police). The unprecedented tax cut is undermining the ability of the 50 states to meet basic public needs. The move has already turned people against their own local governments.

The withdrawal of the us from the Kyoto Protocol is the latest in a series of relentless assaults on international agreements. Since the appointment of president Bush, the us has refused to join the International Criminal Court, the convention on landmines and a host of other international agreements. Most recently, it was found guilty of attempting to undermine even the most neo-liberal international establishments -- wto. Bush wraps his policies in the rhetoric of political conservatism. His anti- un positions panders to the infantile fear of a world government that desires to enslave the us.

By undermining the Kyoto Protocol through a series of bilateral agreements with India, Chile, Italy and other countries, Bush is helping the coal and oil industries. He is attempting to bribe the Russian president to withhold his country's support to the Kyoto Protocol. This is more than just a passing political aberration because of the 'gathering gravity' of a number of global threats, including the collapse of fisheries and dying forests. By ignoring the escalating pace of climatic instability, the Bush administration is leading the world into climate hell. By ignoring the wto, it is protecting the obscene profits of the agribusiness community at the expense of struggling farmers in Mexico and elsewhere. In denying Iraqis the right to compete for contracts to rebuild their country's infrastructure, it is enforcing a veiled form of 'corporate imperialism'.

For a long time, those who felt trapped in Bush's America looked up to the eu. They considered eu as a rational, if not progressive, counterbalance to the political fundamentalism of the us. But now, the Europeans seem to have adapted the us strategy of handing over the reins of many policies to interested corporations and industries. Ironically, even eu is affected by the us policies. Not long ago, a Canadian official suggested that the eu could file a lawsuit against the us in the wto for the carbon subsidies it accords to all its exports. The logic of this argument is that while the eu -- the main trade partner of the us -- reduces carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, the us, by ignoring those constraints, is actually subsidising its goods, making them more competitive. Unfortunately this idea has not gained much attention in the diplomatic arena.

While the planet is crying out for a new stage of social evolution, the Bush administration is forging a future that will be much more combative, tribalised and degraded. With the eu not insisting that the us should adhere to international agreements, the world might witness something mind-boggling -- the annexation of Europe as America's 51st state.

Ross Gelbspan is a former journalist with The Philadelphia Bulletin, The Washington Post and the Boston Globe. 12jav.net12jav.net