I asked George Soros two questions at the news conference that
followed his recent speech at the University of Pittsburgh.
First, I asked if he considered the threat from militant Islam
to be as dangerous as the threat we previously faced from Nazism
and Communism. And second, since he had just finished presenting
his case that the Bush administration’ s doctrine of preemptive
action and the invasion of Iraq were only making matters worse, I
asked Soros to prioritize what he’d do to fight terrorism.
On the first question, he replied that Islam isn’t monolithic,
isn’t uniform. “It is a threat, but there are Shiite Muslims in
jail right now in Iran for advocating an open society,” he said.
Paradoxically, according to Soros, the Bush administration, while
asserting that it’s fighting for democracy, is in point of fact
moving the world away from the concept of a free and open society,
both here at home and in the Middle East, away from the concept
that values civil liberties and a full and free discussion of the
issues — away, in other words, from the nuts and bolts of
democracy.
The war in Iraq, inadvertently, has become “President Bush’s
unintended gift to bin Laden,” Soros charged, a gift of an
“unnecessary war” that’s producing more anger against the United
States, more recruits for al Qaeda, and more credibility for those
in the Arab world who oppose the creation of open societies. “The
invasion of Iraq bred more people willing to risk their lives
against Americans than we were able to kill — generating a vicious
circle of escalating violence with no end in sight,” Soros
contended, producing a quagmire that’s decreasing our security,
expanding our debt, killing our troops, impairing our military
power, driving away allies, and eroding our values.
“All my experience in fostering democracy and open society has
taught me that democracy cannot be imposed by military means,”
Soros stated in his lecture prior to the news conference. “And Iraq
would be the last place I would choose for an experiment in
introducing democracy — as the current chaos demonstrates.”
Here at home, Soros argued that the Bush administration is also
undermining the values of an open society, the precise ideals and
civil liberties that he said drew him to America after being born
in Hungary and living through fascism, the Holocaust and Communism.
What came crashing down on September 11, he maintained, was not
just the World Trade Center but also the critical process of a full
and honest debate of the issues — a vital precondition for
democracy.
President Bush’s declaration that “either you are with us, or
you are with the terrorists” set off the alarm bells, said Soros.
“The fact that the terrorists are evil does not make whatever
counter-actions we take automatically good,” he contended. “What we
do to combat terrorism may also be wrong, and recognizing that we
may be wrong is the foundation of an open society.”
In reply to my second question, about how he would fight
terrorism, Mr. Soros stated that we should start by correcting our
own behavior, by looking at what we’ve done wrong. One thing he
sees as wrong is that George W. Bush is Commander-in-Chief. Another
wrong, he explained, is that the United States isn’t yet signed up
with the Kyoto treaty or the International Criminal Court in The
Hague.
It’s at that point that my own alarm bells began to ring. To
implement the U.N.’s Framework Convention for Climate Change, the
Kyoto rules require industrialized nations to reduce the emission
of greenhouse gases, starting with a 5.2 percent cut over 10 years.
But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes is already
saying that’s not enough and that the reduction should be around 60
percent to really make a difference. The problem, on top of the job
losses, is that we don’t even know if the greenhouse effect is
actually increasing, or even if human activity has anything to do
with it.
And with the International Criminal Court, designed to try
people for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity, who
can say that American troops won’t be pulled up for trial, or
anyone caught in a Cadillac Escalade, once driving a big ol’ thang
is judged to be a transgression against humanity?
Bottom line? The more I listened, the more I didn’t like the
idea of a “global test.”
