Thursday, August 11, 2005

On choosing words carefully

Doesn't this language sound far too familiar?
Britain, France and Germany have submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations' nuclear agency expressing "serious concern" about Iran's nuclear ambitions...

The three European Union nations...want Iran to suspend all its uranium enrichment activities and have asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to verify Iran's compliance, said Reuters, which obtained a full copy of the draft.

"Outstanding issues relating to Iran's nuclear programme have yet to be resolved and ... the [IAEA] is not yet in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared activities in Iran," said the draft.

That's right, it's the War in Iraq special, including two features designed to allow foreign states to do pretty much whatever they please in response to uncertain activities. First, an ambiguously-used "serious" - which is only linked to "concern" this time, but which was interpreted as "justifying war" last time Bush decided to go on the warpath. Second, an impossible onus on the state in question to prove a negative to the same countries on the opposite side of the table.

We know that Britain was all too willing to go along with the Iraq charade, but there's no excuse for France and Germany to let their names be attached to this sort of process. Even American intelligence doesn't suggest that Iran's nuclear poses the slightest bit of threat at this point. Unfortunately, politics have a way of taking precedence over reality, and Europe's giants have just given Bush a lot of undeserved political cover.

No comments:

Post a Comment