Letter: Bush fails to ‘walk softly’ in a changed world

Thursday, Jan. 30, 2003 | 9:15 a.m.

When one looks at the presidency of George W. Bush, one sees an individual who is trying to make his mark in history by emulating a success story of the early 20th century. He sees President Theodore Roosevelt as his idol and his slogan of "Walk softly and carry a big stick" as his guiding light. However, there are some discerning differences, both in timing and substance. The world has shrunk in the intervening century and George Bush does not "walk softly."

Until President Bush accepts the fact that times have changed and big-power diplomacy will have to yield to world consensus, peace will never come to this globe. Jacques Cousteau said in essence that we live on spaceship earth as we travel through the universe. You cannot see borders from space. That is a truism and if we expect to travel through space in peace, we will have to look to a solution beyond superpower diplomacy.

After World War II the world leaders saw what the horrors of war had wrought, and to avoid future conflicts they established the United Nations. The U.N. has been an evolutionary process as it gains acceptance. Our hope for a peaceful world will have to rest with a strong United Nations, not individual nations and gunship diplomacy. No government should undercut the U.N. but should strengthen and respect it, for that is the only hope for our future.

George W. Bush can make his mark in history by the decisions he makes concerning the U.N. and Iraq. One has to hope that the current administration's policies will accept this premise before going it alone.

RAYMOND HARBERT