The US Should Engage In The Durban II Process

Some overseas matters fall in the That-Was-Drearily-Predictable category. Hugo Chavez's successful grab at the big gold ring of presidency-for-life belongs there. So also does the recent spate of anti-Shia bombings in Iraq. And the continued missile barrage out of Gaza.

Even the shake-and-grin, Hi-I'm-the-new-secstate trip by Hillary Clinton to Asia falls in the So What Else Is New department. This event in progress is on the level of pirates in the Gulf of Aden for its impact on the dynamics of international relations and the course of US foreign policy.

The decision by the Obama Administration to participate in the planning process for the Durban II conference is a cat of a different stripe. This decision carries with it the potential to see significant changes in both the global dynamic and the relation of the US with other states. Like all potentials this one is the sword of two edges.

When George W. Bush pulled the US out of the Durban conference on racism etc back in 2001, it was the right action. The UN conflab had degenerated into the worst sort of let's-all-bash-Israel affray with predictable side jaunts of anti-American and anti-Western vitriol. As an international exercise in guaranteeing, expanding or enforcing basic human rights as, for example, enshrined in the UN Convention on Human Rights, Durban I had the utility of mammary glands on a bull.

Over the ensuing years the UN Human Rights Council and its name-changed clone have been dominated by members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference--none of which are noted exemplars of human rights advocacy--and other similarly inclined nations such as Russia, China and even Venezuela which fall in the same league. That's the league where human rights are far more often honored in the breech than in the observance.

Under the Cheney-Bush Administration the US kept far more than merely arm's length distance from the UN Human Rights travesty in Geneva. The US even voted against UN budgets having a line item appertaining to the "Human Rights" wallahs.

This showed extreme distaste and disapproval. It was a sort of crowd pleaser. But, the tactic contained one major shortcoming.

The US had no influence on the process leading up to the scheduled review conference, Durban II, as it has been dubbed with an accuracy yet to be determined.

By the dubious approach of maintaining political and (allegedly) moral purity, the US surrendered the field to the opposition. By behaving rather like a dowager cast among dolts and poltroons, the US cast aside the chance for trench warfare with the enemies of free speech, free expression of criticism, openness to divergent views and cultural imperatives, equality of peoples regardless of the artifacts of race, religion, sexual orientation or political affiliation.

To put it bluntly, over the long haul the action by the previous administration was just plain dumb, flat-out stupid and inherently self-defeating.

The Obama administration is to be commended. The decision to get back in the fray is the right one. If--

If the intention is to get into the trenches and fight.

If the goal is to assure that the US will lead an effective, coherent attack on behalf of the core values of freedom and individual dignity, of the rights of humans to be free of repression, discrimination based on the above mentioned artifacts, of the necessity for open and unfettered debate.

If Mr Obama, Ms Clinton and their assorted underlings have the guts and brains, the intellectual, moral and political courage to draw an absolute line in the sand against the dogmatic tyranny of ideological doctrine under whatsoever cover, then the Administration will deserve rich and unstinting praise.

Such a fight will be neither easy nor (metaphorically) bloodless. It will require a gumption and a certainty of purpose equalling or surpassing that necessary to confront armed terrorists.

The US will have to acknowledge and repair the mistakes it and its allies have made during the years of the Bush Administration's "Great Global War On Terrorism." Much that we and others such as the UK have done under the rubric of "anti-terrorism" have served to abridge historic rights and liberties. These policies and programs must be stopped and dismantled if we are to win against the authoritarian opposition of the OIC and kindred regimes.

The ever-so-sensitive High Minded Lofty Thinkers here in the US as well as in Europe must understand that the multi-cultural political correctness self-censorship is not a recognition of either the rights and dignities of people or the diversity which characterises Earth's billions. This implies that the Obama Administration must stand at odds with some of its political base, which demands a level of courage normally absent in American politics.

If, on the other hand, the Obama administration's re-engagement with the Durban II process proves to be an exercise in placation, of seeking to defang "extremism" by incremental appeasement, then it deserves to fail. More, such a goal--or such an outcome--will merit the most severe disapprobation by We the People.

Engagement with nations or ideologies--even those which call themselves religions--demand the will and ability to fight for the values and aspirations which have long characterised both the United States and the West. All ideologies which demand submission to an authoritarian dogma, an authoritarian leader, are inherently incompatible with the American worldview.

In short, to paraphrase a line from hundreds of B grade western movies, "This here planet ain't big enough for the both of us. And, I ain't leaving."

What this means in practice is simple. The US should and must engage in the Durban II planning process. If the totalitarian crowd from the OIC and kindred countries cannot be dislodged from their agenda of bashing Israel, bashing the West, bashing the US, limiting speech, practicing intolerance, even onto murder of those of differing religions or orientations, then we must withdraw.

We must withdraw in order to fight harder. We must withdraw from Durban II in order to effectively rally our citizens and those of like minded nations to fight longer and harder against the forces bent on repressing, on limiting, on extinguishing the rights of humans.

If withdraw to fight we must, the sides will have been clearly chosen. No one anywhere will have the slightest doubt of what country, what ideology, what religious confession, what leader stands for the fullest expression of human rights, dignity and freedom. And, what country, what ideology, what religion, what leader stands in opposition.

The decks will have been cleared for battle. For this, the decision of the Obama administration deserves both congratulations and support.