THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 17, 1997 TAG: 9702140026
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 52 lines
Former president George Bush has joined the fight for U.S. ratification of an international treaty banning chemical weapons. He has also said it is of ``fundamental importance'' for the United States to pay its arrears in United Nations Dues and to adequately fund the State Department.
In all these regards, it so happens, he is accord with the Clinton administration and out of step with certain belligerent and isolationist elements in his own Republican party. Those elements have become more prominent since Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., took over as chairman of the Foreign Relations committee.
The accord with the Clinton agenda isn't really a case of strange bedfellows, though. Ever since Secretary of War Henry Stimson spoke at Bush's prep school and inspired the young man to enlist in the fight against Nazism, he's been a committed internationalist. He became one of the youngest Navy pilots in World War II and later served as United States ambassador to China and to the United Nations and as head of the CIA.
The chemical weapons treaty he endorses isn't perfect, but the United States would be far better served by its leading the international opposition to these weapons than by opting out of the process. Bush is right to insist that we throw our weight behind the effort to control the spread of chemical weapons.
Typically, Helms is not holding up the treaty because he opposes it but because he's using it as a hostage. His real aim is to force the administration to make changes he wants in the State Department and to insist on reforms he favors in the United Nations.
Helms has a long history of obstructing legislation or putting holds on nominations in order to extort unrelated concessions. He's at it again in the case of the chemical weapons treaty. Bush, by contrast, has said he believes the ratification should be beyond partisanship. He's right and it's time someone took Helms to task for his tactics. A former president of his own party with respected foreign policy credentials is the right man to do it, and Bush deserves credit for coming forward.
The chemical weapons treaty should be ratified. The United Nations is under new management thanks to the objections of the United States to another term at the top for Boutros-Ghali. The reforms we have long sought are now promised. A payment schedule contingent upon their being implemented should be arranged. And the new secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, whom Helms himself glowingly endorsed, should be permitted to propose her own agenda for the department before Helms gets in the act as a shadow secretary.
If it comes down to a choice between the foreign policy instincts of the prudent and experienced George Bush or the inflammatory and nefarious Jesse Helms, the choice is easy. Back Bush.