WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?

"U.S. may retaliate after losing seat on human rights panel."

That article about the United States being replaced on the U.N. Human
Rights Commission made it onto Page 9A of the May 5 Leader-Telegram.
This is a shameful development deserving Page 1 attention.

The United States has the resources to stand on its own, and when
things do not go our way, we take our ball and go home. There is an
important lesson in this, but learning from it requires humility, a
characteristic many U.S. citizens do not have in abundance.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey was quoted as saying the decision was
"ludicrous," but is it? President Bush is proposing an unprecedented,
unilateral missile defense program that jeopardizes the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty, the foundation of a sane approach to the proliferation
of nuclear weapons. The proposed defense system would be a boondoggle
for corporations in the U.S., the largest manufacturer of weapons in
the world.

Plan Columbia provides military support to repressive regimes and
paramilitary groups who terrorize people in rural areas of South
America in the name of the drug war. The U.S., and El Salvador are the
only countries left in the hemisphere who refuse to have trade
relations with Cuba, a fact that helps maintain most of its population
in poverty.

U.S. sanctions, not sanctions specified by the U.N., continue to
result in bombing of parts of Iraq. Inside the U.N., we work to
maintain sanctions preventing Iraq from feeding its people and
rebuilding the infrastructure we destroyed.

Israel developed nuclear weapons through technology it obtained from
us for peaceful uses. Do we propose sanctions against Israel? No, we
keep giving them military support to allow them to dominate their neighbors.

Instead of retaliating, we should do everything we can to become
better neighbors.

Larry Glenn, Eau Claire