When a gun is held up in contempt for the rule of law, the result is everyone in the reach of the bullet is incarcerated. Bullets instead of minds set international policy:
One of the great weaknesses
in the modern Middle East explaining much of the chronic violence and
political thuggery of the past half-century is that the rule of the gun
is stronger than the rule of law. Three separate developments now
taking place in different parts of the Arab world might have real
consequences for the region’s future: the International Criminal Court
(ICC) indictment against the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir;
the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) approved this week by the Iraqi
Parliament, under which the United States must withdraw its forces by
the end of 2011; and the mixed Lebanese-international tribunal that
will try those accused of killing former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik
Hariri and other public figures.
If we ever hope to become more than our weakest impulses, we will have
to overcome our preference for violence and our need for a bloody end.
