AXE WORTHY:

Axworthy says Bush will lose terror war: Ex-minister says U.S. reversion to 'law of the jungle' is immoral, ineffective (Randy Boswell, November 20, 2002, The Ottawa Citizen)

Lloyd Axworthy will deliver a blistering critique of the U.S.-led war on terrorism tonight at Carleton University, casting the with-us-or-against-us "Bush doctrine" and the unrelenting push for war with Iraq as a reversion to "the law of the jungle" on a global scale.

In a speech titled Canadian Foreign Policy: Choices and Consequences, the former foreign affairs minister bluntly predicts the failure of the military campaign against al-Qaeda fanatics and warns that "counter-terrorism is the new crusade" that effectively gives the United States "the right to be judge, jury and prosecutor against any country, or anyone it considers a threat, running contrary to half a century of international law and the Charter of the United Nations." [...]

"Attempting to beat terrorists into submission through military action cannot be effective," Mr. Axworthy states.

"There are too many pre-existing tensions, which military attacks exacerbate rather than quell. Military responses feed the anger, poverty, rhetoric -- the climate of grievance -- that create and sustain terrorist intentions."

And he depicts Canada as facing a historic choice between junior partnership in an emerging American empire or committing itself more resolutely to the multilateral agencies and structures that offer a counterweight -- based on international law and treaties -- to tyranny and terrorism but also to U.S. political, economic and military might.

How is declaring yourself a counterweight to American interests different than saying you're against us? Posted by Orrin Judd at November 20, 2002 12:12 PM