Double standards

By Deauwand Myers

The United Nations, much derided by American conservatives, is an important body. Though flawed, its purpose, to promote peace and human rights, is noble. However, the U.N.'s strength, its global inclusivity, is also its deepest flaw. Governments hostile to democracy or weary of American power constantly stand in the way of meaningful actions against rogue regimes. China is particularly guilty of this: it supports Iran, Sudan, Myanmar, and most egregiously, North Korea.

China sees no problem in supporting brutal dictatorships because the cost-benefit equation fits their overarching goal: supplanting America as the world's de facto superpower. This goal, in itself, does not disturb me. China has so many internal problems, from extreme environmental pollution, the Tibetans and the Huigurs (an ethnic Islamic minority) to vast and widening wealth disparity, and an increasingly sophisticated population hungrier for true freedom their quest for global domination seems seriously hampered.

And yet China is not where the double standard lies. We come to expect the Chinese government to nakedly pursue wealth and power without any moral compass to guide such an endeavor. America, whose schizophrenic foreign policy supported dictators like Saddam Hussein, only to undo them at great cost of blood and treasure, is where the indictment lands most squarely.

And as America goes, so does much of the world. While Israel can wage bloody campaigns against Lebanon, bomb a nuclear facility in Syria, and impose a blockade against the Palestinians, South Korea is expected to do little more than scream as their navy officers are killed in a cowardly, unprovoked attack by another sovereign nation ― North Korea.

Now to be sure, Israel's enemies are many and their fears and anxieties of what the enemies will do are well-founded. Nonetheless, the recent, deadly confrontation of the Israeli military with a Turkish humanitarian flotilla reveals the overzealous nature of Israel's defense posture.

Some of the international community protested, but America's response was muted, at best. Israel has every right to defend itself, the means and consequences by which it does so are much more complicated. Doesn't South Korea, a nation of nearly 50 million people (over seven times that of Israel) have just as much right to defend itself?

Would any of us blink an eye if, hypothetically, Israel conducted a strategic bombing of Iran in response to an unprovoked naval attack? The scenario of an Israeli preventative strike against Iran is a probable one. If Iran continues its on again, off again nuclear program, Israel may very well attack it.

And yet South Korea, a sovereign, peaceful country, can have one of its navy vessels split in two and America, indeed, the world, does little more than cry foul and request further sanctions on North Korea, in itself a meaningless gesture, as North Korea has been impoverished from sanctions and supported by China for decades. Further, China and Russia will veto such a sanction or greatly dilute its final form.

The double standards must end. Surely South Korea is just as important as Israel. Surely its security cannot be forever threatened by a recalcitrant North, who has attempted to assassinate at least one South Korean president, kidnapped South Koreans, blown up a civilian airliner, violated Korean waters, and most recently, and dastardly, stage a secret attack against a naval vessel within South Korean waters.

America needs to give a more full-throated denunciation of North Korea and make it unquestionably clear that another attack like the one that just occurred will be met with deadly force. All peaceful, democratic nations, or nations that aspire to be so, have a basic right not to live in constant fear of existential threats. Period.

The writer holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory and is currently an English professor outside of Seoul. He has written novels and poetry and can be reached at deauwand@hotmail.com.