International Law: December 2006 Archives

On the roots of "neoconservativism" and the ascendence to power in U.S. foreign policy of those with the psychology of primitive brutes and belief that force solves all problems

"In repudiating the "rational humanism" of the liberal internationalists she gave voice to what may be called the Hobbesian impulse in US foreign policy an insistence that brute power and not human reason establishes political legitimacy."

Jeane Kirkpatrick, Ronald Reagan's envoy to the UN, died [recently] at 80. She picked a graceful moment to exit, the day after the Iraqi Study Group announced its recommendations, signaling, we are told, the return of realist reason to the Republican Party. In the coming days, expect eulogies that will compare Kirkpatrick's diplomatic philosophy favorably to the neocon delusion that convinced Bush to believe he could lead a global crusade to "rid the world of evil." Kirkpatrick did after all lambaste Democrats in the early 1980s for believing the US could be "world's mid-wife" to democracy. "No idea," she complained, "holds greater sway in the mind of educated Americans than the belief that it is possible to democratize governments, anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances." But don't believe the hype, for the righteousness that underwrote Kirkpatrick-style realism easily bleeds into the kind of blinkered moralism that so excites the neocons.

Germany has paid enough for implementing the Holocaust, and Israel has been given enough special treatment by that country in reparation, say 25 German academics.

In a petition published Wednesday in the Frankfurter Rundschau, the academics - described as highly influential professors on the payroll of the German government - said it was time their country embraced the Palestinian Arabs as much as it has embraced the Jews.

The ramifications of the Holocaust had resulted in much suffering among the "Palestinians" and Germany was therefore also bound to stand with them and not just with Israel.

Failure to do so, the petitioners warned, could lead to unrest among the German people. (Source: http://www.jnewswire.com/article/1383)

"Globally, the race to the bottom is gathering momentum. U.S. corporations export jobs to Mexico to cash in on cheap labor. In no time at all, though, tens of thousands of Mexicans lose their jobs to Asians who will sweat for less."

So who is surprised construction workers are treated worse than dogs in the United Arab Emirates?

Who is surprised to find migrant workers from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh building skyscrapers for just 10% of the average UAE wage of $2,106 per month?

Who is surprised to read a Human Rights Watch(HRW) report showing employers' illegally holding back wages for months, withholding passports as "security" so workers can't quit, and allowing recruiters charge shyster fees?

Who is surprised a 1980 UAE minimum wage law has never been enforced?

Who is surprised HRW found "there is no public record of a single case where it (the government) has penalized an employer with fines or imprisonment for failing to pay wages, or any other breaches of the labor law?"

Who is surprised the bodies of 880 construction workers from the Indian sub-continent nations cited above were shipped home in caskets in 2004 alone? (That's a death rate comparable to annual U.S. troop losses in Iraq.)