Rome resists Bush's plea for a blessing on aggression

Rome resists Bush's plea for a blessing on aggression
February 9 2003
By Ray Cassin





While US Secretary of State Colin Powell was telling the UN Security Counci=
l that it must either accept that it is time for war or consign itself to i=
rrelevance, US diplomats around the world were busy trying to sell the Bush=
doctrine of preventive war as something other than what it is: an admissio=
n that the US will use military force as an instrument of policy.

One instance of this in the past week was the attempt by the US ambassador =
to Australia, Tom Schieffer, to stifle criticism of the Bush doctrine and i=
ts implications by Labor MPs. It was arrogant and clumsy, but at least the =
ambassador's antics let us know what Washington really thinks of the allian=
ce. When a diplomat thinks it acceptable to suggest that certain subjects b=
e off-limits in the parliamentary debates of the country to which he is acc=
redited, he is behaving as an agent of empire.

But Australia is a very small part of the world stage, and the Bush Adminis=
tration will not be greatly concerned about what is said here. Of far more =
importance, from Washington's point of view, is the line being taken in the=
capitals of Europe, a part of the world at which it likes to sneer but who=
se moral endorsement it continues to seek. "Old Europe" is the preferred ta=
g when sneering.

Essentially, it refers to any part of Europe where government is either sce=
ptical about US policy on Iraq or openly opposed to it; hence, it chiefly m=
eans France and Germany.

But the most intriguing, and most futile, part of the US diplomatic offensi=
ve is being directed at the oldest institution in Old Europe, the papacy. T=
he Vatican has resolutely refused to endorse either the notion of preventiv=
e war in general or an invasion of Iraq in particular.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/08/1044579984380.html