Sources on US as a Rogue State

Since I called US a rogue state in the last post I decided it would be a good idea to post some material that provides evidence of such. In the references at the end of the article there are many further good articles.



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United States as a rogue nation
From SourceWatch
Questions as to whether or not the United States is a "rogue nation", as well as the Bush regime's complicity, are being posed, and answered, around the world.
Contents[hide]
1 Definitions of Rogue Nation
2 Usage and Origin
3 Rogue Actions of the US
4 US as a "failed nation"
5 US Ratifications: Withdrawn or Withheld
5.1 George W. Bush Administration in 2001
5.2 Previous Administrations (1977-1989)
6 Related
7 Related SourceWatch Resources
8 External Links
8.1 Websites
8.2 Articles & Commentary
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Definitions of Rogue Nation
WordNet 2.0 Search hosted by Princeton University defines "rogue nation"[1] as follows:
The noun "rogue nation" has 1 sense in WordNet.
1. rogue state, renegade state, rogue nation -- (a Third World state that possesses weapons of mass destruction and sponsors terrorism)
From this apparently objective definition of the term, it would seem that the term "rogue nation" was defined specifically to encapsulate nations which could pose an asymmetrical threat.
However, the "Merriam-Webster American Collegiate dictionary defines rogue as: vicious and destructive; isolated and dangerous or uncontrollable. ... It seems ... the Merriam-Webster makes a hell of a case that the rogue nation is the United States of America. The U.S. is fiercely aggressive toward its neighbours, undaunted by international law, armed to the teeth and dangerous. Increasingly, it is isolating itself from the community of nations in pursuit of unfettered sovereignty and the consequent economic and political power its wealth gives it. If it abrogates treaties, or simply refuses to be involved in any kind of multinational agreements that limit its powers, it will be uncontrollable. ... In short, a rogue nation."[2]
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Usage and Origin
"The term rogue nation, formerly reserved for outlaw countries, is increasingly being applied to the United States--not only by enemies but by people who have been steadfast friends. The litany is familiar to anyone who consults an op-ed page even occasionally."[3]
For example, Madhavee Inamdar, writing for the December 12, 2002, issue of Foreign Policy In Focus, says that the "Bush administration has finally laid out a formal strategy document on combating weapons of mass destruction. It has recently issued a reminder of its policy that warns any nation using weapons of mass destruction against the United States or its allies that it will face massive retaliation, perhaps with nuclear weapons. An official says the policy statement is part of President Bush's effort to deal with threats from rogue nations and terrorists alike. By rehabilitating the term rogue to describe states Washington considers beyond the pale of the civilized political community, President Bush has brought the Rogue Nations phrase back into global fashion."
The first use of the expression rogue nation has been attributed to "Les Aspin, President Bill Clinton’s first Secretary of Defense, and the rogue nations included Cuba, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Iran and Iraq."[4][5]
"Aspin was referring to those nations which oppose the foreign and military policies of the United States in their region, including U.S. actions and efforts to dominate those countries. ... [Today,] the term also identifies those states which aren't officially engaged in acts of war but which harbor or enable factions engaged in terrorist activities carried out in the name of religious zealotry or in retaliation for real or perceived injustices by their targets (such as, perhaps, the October 12, 2000, attack on the U.S.S. Cole in the Yemen harbor of Aden)."[6]
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Rogue Actions of the US
Christopher Hitchens asks in May/June 2001 "Which country refuses to sign international treaties and ignores U.N. resolutions while demanding that everyone else play by the rules? You guessed it." Rogue Nation USA. Christopher Hitchens also said, on the Washington Journal on C-Span(6/1/04), if he could vote in the upcoming election, he would vote for the re-election of Bush because of his pro terrorists-elimination policy.
Vernon Coleman writes in "America: Rogue Nation":
"The American Government constantly says one thing and does another. It imposes standards on the rest of the world which it refuses to accept itself. It has consistently shown a disregard for international law and a contempt for human rights.
"The Americans claim to be the fount of goodness but they refuse to do anything to help poor countries - indeed, over the last couple of decades they have introduced policies which have directly led to the deaths of millions of innocent people. America's idea of diplomacy is to carpet bomb countries which upset America.
"The Americans deny basic human rights to whole countries and then arrogantly claim that they know best. They insist that price stability within America is more important than the future of the planet; they continue to destroy our environment (as well as their own) and to wage war against innocents all around the world.
"Virtually every day there are reports of American hypocrisy. The American president claims that his country leads the world in justice and yet his is the one of the few countries which routinely executes children. American presidents wage war to distract attention from their sexual peccadilloes. They insist that developing countries have properly supervised elections and yet they themselves conduct a presidential election which is decided when the so-called Supreme Court arbitrarily decides not to recount votes which would almost certainly have changed the result of the election.
"A headline in an American newspaper ran: 'All Nations on Earth Sign Global Warming Agreement. USA Refuses.' And still they wonder why everyone loathes and despises them."
In his December 19, 2003, review of Clyde Prestowitz's "Rogue Nation" in the New Zealand Herald, Mark Fryer says: "And how did America squander the world's goodwill? Clyde Prestowitz doesn't put it so crudely, but by acting like a jerk, long before September 11." Also see why do they hate us?
But, beyond this "kinder, gentler" way of expressing the issue, John M. Swomley asserted in the January 2001 issue of the Humanist that "Most U.S. citizens accept their government's view of rogue states because the major news media parrot the Pentagon's point of view. However, in nearly every case of suspected terrorism, the United States was in fact the original aggressor, using its own form of aggression to which the rogue states were responding. ... The United States uses very similar terrorist attacks but instead describes them as covert action. The CIA has been responsible for numerous such acts and they are always instigated within a political context."
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US as a "failed nation"
With the empire and the economy collapsing around George W. Bush and his Banana Republicans, the question also arises as to whether once mighty America is on the verge of failed nation status.
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US Ratifications: Withdrawn or Withheld
The Canadian Centre for Research on Globalization's web site posts a laundry list of global treaties, events, and programs from which the United States has withdrawn or withheld ratification. Dated December 22, 2001, just over three months following the events of September 11, 2001, Richard Du Boff itemized:
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George W. Bush Administration in 2001
December 2001: "United States officially withdrew from the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, gutting the landmark agreement-the first time in the nuclear era that the US renounced a major arms control accord."
December 2001: United States Senate "again added an amendment to a military appropriations bill that would keep US military personnel from obeying the jurisdiction of the proposed" International Criminal Court (ICC) Treaty, "to be set up in The Hague to try political leaders and military personnel charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Signed in Rome in July 1998, the Treaty was approved by 120 countries, with 7 opposed (including the US). In October 2001 Great Britain became the 42nd nation to sign."
November 2001: At Geneva, U.S. Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton "stated that 'the protocol is dead,' at the same time accusing Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Sudan, and Syria of violating the 1972 Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention but offering no specific allegations or supporting evidence."
November 2001: United States "forced a vote in the UN Committee on Disarmament and Security to demonstrate its opposition" to the Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty which had been signed "by 164 nations and ratified by 89 including France, Great Britain, and Russia; signed by President Clinton in 1996 but rejected by the Senate in 1999. The US is one of 13 nonratifiers among countries that have nuclear weapons or nuclear power programs."
November 2001: The Bush administration "shunned negotiations in Marrakech (Morocco) to revise" the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 "for controlling global warming, ... mainly by watering it down in a vain attempt to gain US approval."
October 2001: The United States joined Israel and the Marshall Islands in opposing a UN General Assembly resolution "calling for an end to the US embargo" / "an illegal boycott of Cuba, now being made tighter."
September 2001: United States "withdrew from International Conference on Racism, bringing together 163 countries in Durban, South Africa."
August 2001: President George W. Bush "disavowed" President Bill Clinton's commitment to comply in 2006 to the Land Mine Treaty, banning land mines, which was "signed in Ottawa in December 1997 by 122 nations. The United States refused to sign, along with Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Egypt, and Turkey. President Clinton rejected the Treaty, claiming that mines were needed to protect South Korea against North Korea's 'overwhelming military advantage.'"
July 2001: United States "walked out of a London conference to discuss" strengthening ("by providing for on-site inspections") the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention that had been "ratified by 144 nations including the United States."
July 2001: United States was "the only nation to oppose the United Nations Agreement to Curb the International Flow of Illicit Small Arms."
July 2001: United States was the only member of the G-8 group of industrial nations to oppose the International Plan for Cleaner Energy.
May 2001: United States "refused to meet with European Union nations to discuss, even at lower levels of government, economic espionage and electronic surveillance of phone calls, e-mail, and faxes (the US 'Echelon' program).
May 2001: United States "refused to participate in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-sponsored talks in Paris ... on ways to crack down on off-shore and other tax and money-laundering havens."
April 2001: United States "was not re-elected to the UN Human Rights Commission, "after years of withholding dues to the UN (including current dues of $244 million)--and after having forced the UN to lower its share of the UN budget from 25 to 22 percent. (In the Human Rights Commission, the US stood virtually alone in opposing resolutions supporting lower-cost access to HIV/AIDS drugs, acknowledging a basic human right to adequate food, and calling for a moratorium on the death penalty.)"
March 2001: President George W. Bush "declared [the Kyoto Protocol] 'dead'."
February 2001: United States "refused to join 123 nations pledged to ban the use and production of anti-personnel bombs and mines."
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Previous Administrations (1977-1989)
1989: United States has "neither signed nor ratified and specifically exempts itself from the latter provision [of the Optional Protocol] to the UN's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at abolition of the death penalty and containing a provision banning the execution of those under 18." The United States is "one of five countries that still execute juveniles (with Saudi Arabia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria). China abolished the practice in 1997, Pakistan in 2000."
1989: United States and Somalia (which has no functioning government) have "signed but not ratified the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects the economic and social rights of children."
1988: United States finally ratified the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, "adding several 'reservations' to the effect that the US Constitution and the 'advice and consent' of the Senate are required to judge whether any 'acts in the course of armed conflict' constitute genocide. The reservations are rejected by Britain, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Mexico, Estonia, and others."
1984: United States "quit UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and ceased its payments for UNESCO's budget, over the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) project designed to lessen world media dependence on the 'big four' wire agencies (AP, UPI, Agence France-Presse, Reuters). The US charged UNESCO with 'curtailment of press freedom,' as well as mismanagement and other faults, despite a 148-1 in vote in favor of NWICO in the UN. UNESCO terminated NWICO in 1989; the US nonetheless refused to rejoin. In 1995 the Clinton administration proposed rejoining; the move was blocked in Congress and Clinton did not press the issue. In February 2000 the US finally paid some of its arrears to the UN but excluded UNESCO, which the US has not rejoined."
1986: United States and Israel voted "no" regarding a UN resolution "calling for compliance" with the International Court of Justice (The Hague) ruling that "the US was in violation of international law for 'unlawful use of force' in Nicaragua, through its actions and those of its Contra proxy army. The US refused to recognize the Court's jurisdiction."
1979: United States, Afghanistan, Sao Tome, and Principe are "only countries that have signed but not ratified" the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
1977: United States signed but has not ratified the 1966 UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights "covering a wide range of rights and monitored by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights."
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Related
On January 13, 2003, Alternet reported that "The European edition of Time magazine is conducting a poll, asking readers to name the country that 'poses the gravest danger to world peace.' The choices: Iraq, North Korea, and the United States. No prizes," it says, "for guessing which nation is leading with 75 percent of the respondents." However, Time subsequently reported that "The voting was closed with the outbreak of military action [in Iraq]." You can still find the results with a total of 706842 votes cast.
The Truth About George web site posts a Rogue Nation page that provides narrative summaries of the following (based on media articles):
October 2003: "Bush Re-Asserts Pre-Emptive Strategy" (Source: New York Times, 10/16/03). See preemptive war and Bush doctrine.
July 2003: "U.S. Suspends Aid to 35 Countries Over New International Court" (Source: New York Times 7/2/03 and Washington Post 7/1/03).
June 2003: "Washington Bullies Belgium with Threats to Withdraw Funding for NATO Headquarters" (Source: BBC Worldwide Monitoring 6/18/03; Agence France Presse 6/13/03; and Washington Post 6/13/03).
June 2003: "Bush Underestimates Complexity of Middle East Conflict" (Source: Washington Post 6/3/03).
May 2003: "U.S. Officials Consider Plans for Death Row in Guantanamo Bay" (Source: Mail on Sunday 5/25/03 and Los Angeles Time 6/3/03).
May 2003: "Bush's 'War on Terror' Condemned for Worsening the State of the World" (Source: Reuters and New York Times 5/28/03).
May 2003: "Bush Administration Moves to Shield Human Rights Abusers" (Source: Human Rights Watch 5/15/03).
May 2003: "Bush Administration Pursues New Era of Nuclear Weapons" (Source: Los Angeles Times and The Nation 5/13/03).
January 2003: "Bush Ignores Allies' Human Rights Abuses" (Source: Agence France Presse and Human Rights Watch 1/14/03).
December 2002: "Administration Refuses Developing Nations Access to Low-Cost Medicines" (Source: AP 12/20/02).
December 2002: "Bush Administration Using Questionable Military Interrogation Techniques" (Source: Washington Post 12/26/02).
December 2002: "Decline in World Opinion of U.S. Policy Coincides with Bush Government" (Source: Washington Post 12/5/02).
November 2002: "Bush's Deadly Attacks Questioned" (Source: Reuters 11/9/02).
September 2002: "Bush Drops Support for Strengthening Biological Weapons Convention" (Source: Washington Post 9/19/02).
September 2002: "Powell Describes the Administration's Idea of International Cooperation" (Source: Washington Post 9/1/02).
August 2002: "Administration Opposes Measures to Increase Renewable Energy" (Source: Agence France Presse 8/27/02).
August 2002: "Bush Praises a Dictator Who Refuses to Clean Up His Act" (Source: Washington Post 8/25/02 and Agence France Presse 8/23/02).
August 2002: "Bush Administration Disses Earth Summit" (Source: Natural Resources Defense Council 8/14/02).
August 2002: "Bush Intervenes in Human Rights Case Against Exxon Mobil" (Source: Human Rights Watch 8/7/02).
July 2002: "Administration Flip-Flops on Women's Treaty" (Source: Sripps Howard News Service 7/22/02).
June 2002: "Bush Blocks Expansion of Security Force (International Security Assistance Force beyond the capital, Kabul) in Afghanistan" (Source: New York Times 6/27/02).
May 2002: "Administration Weakens Agreement on Children's Rights" (Source: AP 4/11/02).
November 2001: "Administration Opposes Nuclear Test Ban Treaty" (Source: AP 11/11/01).
August 2001: "United States Boycotts Conference on Racism" (Source: UPI 8/27/01).
July 2001: "Bush Refuses to Back Clean Energy Sources" (Source: New York Times 7/14/01).
May 2001: "Administration Underfunds AIDS Fund, Weakens AIDS Negotiations" (Source: Health GAP Coalition 5/18/01).
May 2001: "Administration Abandons Crackdown on Tax Havens" (Source: Washington Post 5/11/01).
May 2001: "United States Booted off Human Rights Body (UN Human Rights Commission)" (Source: AP 5/4/01).
March 2001: "Bush Withdraws from Kyoto Protocol" (Source: Agence France Presse 3/28/01).
Robert E. May, for History News Service notes that [7]
before the Civil War, people in Latin America, Western Europe, and even the faraway Hawaiian kingdom were convinced that the United States had become a base for terrorists.
No one then actually used the term "terrorism" for unauthorized attacks on other countries. Rather, these criminals were called "filibusters." But like modern terrorists, U.S. filibusters operated in underground cells, used secret codes and wreaked havoc. They attacked Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua and Honduras and were suspected of planning attacks elsewhere.
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Related SourceWatch Resources
Axis of evil
Bush administration fetish for government secrecy
Bush administration scandals
Bush doctrine
Bush regime
"forward strategy of freedom"
Global insurgency for change
Global War on Terror
globalization
Homeland defense
Homeland security
Intimigate
Islamofascism
Military-industrial complex
New World Order
New World Order headlines
NSC-68
Operation Enduring Freedom
Operation Iraqi Freedom
peacekeeping
privatization
religion and empire
The Bush Theocracy
The case for impeachment of President George W. Bush
The Long War
Timeline to global governance
U.S. presidential election, 2004
Valerie Plame
War on drugs
War on Iraq
war on terror
war on terror manual for victory
War on terrorism
War propaganda
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External Links
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Websites
"The Truth about George" website.
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Articles & Commentary
"Face The Facts: Rogue State Par Excellence," Wisdom Fund, February 15, 1999.
William Pfaff, "From Rogue State to State of Concern to ... the End of History," International Herald Tribune, July 1, 2000.
Ivan Eland and Daniel Lee, "The Rogue State Doctrine and National Missile Defense," Cato Institute, March 29, 2001.
Michael Borucke, "Beware the Rogue State," MIT, August 25, 2001.
Adam Young, "A History of Folly," Ludwig von Mises Institute, November 6, 2001.
Richard B. Du Boff, "Rogue Nation," RobertFisk.com, December 21, 2001.
Photius Coutsoukis, "Of Rogue Nations and Evil Empires," Photius.com, 2002.
"Three Rogue Nations: Iran, Iraq, and North Korea," American Government. Online Almanac, January 29, 2002.
Richard B. Du Boff and Edward S. Herman, "Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall, Who is the Biggest Rogue of All? In Its Unilateralist Disregard, U.S. is the Real 'Rogue State'," Philadelphia Inquirer (Common Dreams), February 25, 2002.
Bob Fitrakis, "Why the UN must disarm the United States--Rogue nation exposed!" The Free Press, January 26, 2003.
Clyde Prestowitz, "How the United States cheats poor nations," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 12, 2003: "'What irks foreigners most is not our values or our achievements. Rather it is the fact that what we do is often at odds with what we preach.'"
Harley Sorensen, "Fear Trumps Freedom In A Perpetual War," San Francisco Chronicle (Common Dreams), January 19, 2004: "...we've become a warlike nation. Rather than printing E pluribus unum on the Great Seal of the United States and on coins, we should consider Have bombs, will travel."
Carl Connetta, "Losing Hearts and Minds: World Public Opinion and post-9/11 US Security Policy," Project on Defense Alternatives Briefing Memo #37, September 14, 2006.
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