An interesting article from The Guardian about U.S. government's plan to remove Jose Bustani, the man in charge of The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The OPCW is an organization that wants to reduce the amount of chemical weapons in the world. So why did the U.S. government want Bustani ousted? When the session started, the OPCW released a statement from Mr. Bustani that was read at the start of the preceding. The last four paragraphs said it all; he wasn’t stepping down. Sadly, he has been dismissed by a vote of 48 to 7, with 43 nations abstaining (details on CBS news website). Without the evidence (that the U.S. promised to provide) to support their claims of "mismanagement" and "bias" I view this as the removal of someone simply because they do not like what he is doing; because he did not treat them with the deferential manner to which they have become accustomed. I think that by seeking to allow the entry of Iraq into the international organization, he ruffled feathers, as this would undermine the U.S. “moral high ground” in continuing economic sanctions against a poverty-stricken populace. I am only mildly surprised by the margin with which he was voted out. I wonder how many countries actually agreed with the U.S. assessment, and how many supported the proposal simply because of their concerns regarding repercussions from the U.S. should it be rejected. Peace. --- Edit: punctuation ---
Another sad, if not unsurprising, example of the double-standards which the world's only remaining superpower seems to be increasingly guilty of.
