On the Right - Powell Versus Bush?(Colin Powell; George W. Bush)(Brief Article)(Column)

NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 2

The Lockerbie decision reminded everybody that Libya is one of what we used to call rogue states, a designation gone out of fashion. Diplomacy doesn't like provocative categories, inasmuch as it is diplomacy's business to weave in and out of such problems as are presented to the world by rogue states. For instance, any rogue state that acquires a nuclear bomb is promoted to world-class respect. President Bush has called for reaffirming the sanctions against Libya. These sanctions have been in place for 15 years. Our opposition to Libyan terrorism was nicely punctuated in 1986 by President Reagan, who sent an Air Force detachment to strike at Tripoli, downheartedly finding Qaddafi away from the house when the bombs homed in on his bedside.

But this call by President Bush, while not exactly colliding with a policy initiative of his secretary of state, calls into question the criteria by which we have been guided over the years in the matter of sanctions. There are nearly 200 nations in the world, and we have, since World War I, imposed sanctions on 125 of them. Some of these sanctions were paramilitary, as e.g., those against Hitler's Germany and Tojo's Japan. But most have been graduated acts of diplomacy. And what we heard from Secretary Powell, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was that he favored not exactly phasing out sanctions, but "get[ting] rid of most of [them]."

An outfit called USA Engage, which wants to increase trade everywhere, particularly in those areas in which we are inhibited from doing so by economic sanctions, is the target of an essay by Frank J. Gaffney Jr., president of the Center for Security Policy. USA Engage "would effectively eliminate the United States' ability to impose economic sanctions on a unilateral basis." The instrument of reform is some version or other of Sen. Lugar's 1998 Enhancement of Trade, Security and Human Rights Through Sanctions Reform Act. The objective, Mr. Gaffney persuasively speculates, is to end by yielding to the United Nations the authority to impose sanctions. Currently we impose sanctions on 75 countries, the U.N. on ...