The sense among Palestinians that they too have been victims of Sept. 11 — because the Israelis have exploited it to the full to paint them as terrorists and therefore to be crushed — will be shared by the Chechens. Russian President Vladimir Putin has, like Ariel Sharon, tried to clamber aboard the American anti-terrorist campaign, presenting his war against Chechens as part and parcel of Bush’s war against Al-Qaeda.
However, not even Washington apparently believes him. Far from backing him in his threat to attack the camps if the Georgians do not do so first, it has warned him firmly against such military intervention. Russia must, the Americans say, respect Georgia’s territorial integrity.
There will be many people around the world puzzled by Washington’s and Moscow’s positions on Georgia and Iraq. While Russia threatens to take unilateral action in one, it opposes the US doing so in the other. The Americans are saying the same thing, but the other way around. Hypocrisy is the word that leaps to mind. Both of them want to stop the other from playing the same game but feel justified in doing so themselves. This juggling with principles by the world’s most powerful nations serves only to convince the rest of humanity that neither of the two know the difference between principles and interests. This is at the heart of why there is such virulent anti-Americanism in so much of the Arab and Muslim worlds and in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America as well. It is not just an occupational hazard that goes with being a superpower; there is a bitter sense that Washington is all too willing to beat the moral drum but then suffers a morality bypass when its interests come into play.
President Bush talks about the moral imperative to fight international terrorism but ignores Israeli terrorism; he condemns Iraq for repeated violations of UN resolutions but ignores Israel’s violations; he warns of the danger of allowing Iraq to develop weapons of mass destruction but never complains about Israel’s illicit nuclear arsenal; he talks about Saddam Hussein being a tyrant and a danger to his country’s neighbors but never says the same about Ariel Sharon who is as much a neo-fascist as the Iraqi leader and as much a danger to the region; he now effectively tells Vladimir Putin that his campaign against the Chechens is not part of his post-Sept. 11 war against international terrorism but does not say the same to Sharon. Will Bush’s speech to the UN, with his acceptance of using the UN route to force Iraq to allow weapons inspectors back in, make any difference?
At international decision-making level, yes, even though he still reserves the right to act unilaterally. Countries are now lining up behind the US: it will get its resolution setting a deadline for the return of inspectors. Even Russia, despite the admonitions, will fall into line. But Bush’s words will not temper the anti-Americanism that infects so much of the world. For that to happen, Washington needs to make some fundamental changes in its attitudes, most of all in its unquestioning support for Israel. Double standard is the root of anti-Americanism. Remove one and the other will subside. Highlight that hypocrisy, and it merely fuels the resentment.
