The Fletcher School

November 8, 2004
Reprinted from South Africa's Cape Times
By Hurst Hannum

The re-election of George Bush as President of the United States compounds the disaster of four years ago, both for the US and the world.

Democracy can produce abnormal results, and the 2000 election might have been dismissed as an aberration. Now, however, American voters have spoken clearly, and fear, fundamentalism and ignorance have prevailed.

I am writing to apologise for my country and for the harm that it is likely to do both within and outside its borders during the next four years.

As an international lawyer, I am ashamed to live in a country that no longer believes in law.

As a liberal who believes in tolerance, I am ashamed to live in a country that now embraces the narrow values of the religious right.

As a teacher, I am ashamed to live among citizens who choose to believe obvious falsehoods, such as the alleged presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or the alleged complicity of Saddam Hussein in the 9/11 attacks.

As a rational human being, I reject the appeal for God to bless America, just as I reject the suicide bomber's call to Allah and the claim of religious zealots everywhere to exclusive knowledge of the truth.

American zealots are not engaging in widespread violence yet, but they reflect the dangerous currents of bigotry and religious extremism that are growing in every corner of the world.

The abdication by the US of any legitimate claim to moral authority will undermine those around the world who believe in human rights and equality between rich and poor, strong and weak.

While I can only hope that individuals and civil society will continue to struggle against injustice, repressive governments everywhere will be heartened by the message from Washington that anything can be justified in the name of waging war on terrorism. The United States has exchanged its ability to inspire for its power to threaten.

While much of the intellectual and political world outside the United States will publicly interpret Tuesday's election as merely confirming their snide dismissal of America's "cowboy" mentality, most of those who sneer have no alternative to offer.

It is conceivable that the US would have invaded Iraq alone, but we who opposed the war remember only too well that the "coalition of the willing" initially included such liberal and law-abiding states as the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain - not to mention all those allies from the "new" Europe.

New anti-terrorism laws in France may be worse than those in the United States, yet few have protested.

And where are the Arab, African and Asian countries that are vocal advocates of human rights, that urge the world to act to prevent massacres in their regions, that settle their differences peacefully? That list is short, if it exists at all.

As George Orwell observed in 1984, "by becoming continuous, war has fundamentally changed its character". It is not only war that has changed, but the way in which America sees itself and the rest of the world that has changed, as well.

While a certain arrogance may have always been present in US foreign policy, that arrogance about "American values" is now accompanied by a messianic menace that is far worse than earlier (perhaps naive) attempts to remake the world in the image of American freedom and democracy. For that, too, I apologise.

The problems which Tuesday's election made more acute are not new.

Nearly a century ago, William Butler Yeats bemoaned the fact that "the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity".

For at least the next four years, the United States will be led by the worst and the passionate. It will be up to the rest of you, against all odds, to keep the damage to a minimum.

Hurst Hannum is Professor of International Law and Co-Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (http://www.chrcr.org) at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States.