Mirko Bagaric: Obama's call for action against North Korea hypocritical

Opinion

US President Barack Obama's call for UN action against North Korea for conducting nuclear tests is an act of hypocrisy of nuclear dimensions.

The US is the most aggressive nation on earth. It is the only nation that has exploded atomic weapons on people (killing hundreds of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and has more nuclear firepower than the rest of the 192 countries combined.

It is incredible that it would try to mount its wonky moral high horse when an impoverished (and albeit badly intentioned) economic and military bit player in the geopolitical arena starts gearing up towards a process that could result in its having a few of its own nuclear toys.

We should not be surprised that the US is grumpy. History shows when important strategic interests are at play, nations ultimately always act on the basis of self-interest.

But what is tragically dispiriting is the black hole that has engulfed the intellectual rigour and wiped the memories of Western politicians and social commentators when it comes to their judgment on international affairs.

Nearly every sleep-inducing commentary on the North Korea (and Iran) nuclear issue in the increasingly parochial Western press has applied the same herd mentality - United States good/North Korea and Iran evil. Let's get the bad guy for wanting to get stronger. The media have swallowed the former US President George W's "good versus evil" folly hook, line and distasteful sinker.

Incredibly they learned nothing from the phoney weapons of mass destruction line that we were fed a few short years back and which thus far has resulted in the death of more than 100,000 Iraqis at US hands.

It's time for a serious reality check, to put an end to the mother of all double standards. People and nations aren't divided into good and evil.

There is a bit of both in each entity. North Korea is not wholly evil and the US is hardly virtue personified. To the extent that a moral bookkeeping exercise can be undertaken, the best indicator is an agent's actions.

On this front the US fares dismally. It is clearly the most aggressive nation on earth. SinceWorld War II, the US has used force against another state on more than 30 occasions - the most notable examples being Vietnam, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cambodia, Korea, Grenada, Afghanistan and Iraq (twice).

Some of these interventions were lawful. Some certainly were not, such as Nicaragua and the present Iraq campaign.

When it comes to doing what it wants, the US enjoys unprecedented freedom. This is becoming increasingly the case.

Following the end of the Cold War, the United States is totally dominant in all matters of importance. As noted by a former judge of the International Court of Justice, C.G. Weeramantry, this is unique in human history: "Never has it occurred before that one single nation has been universally looked upon as the world's leader, the pre-eminent power of the world. No nation in history ever had this position, suddenly descending on it, of being the universally acknowledged superpower of the world".

So before we start toeing the US line on North Korea, let's encourage the US to engage in a bit of self-reflection. Nuclear weapons, and all weapons, are a scourge on humanity.

Instruments whose effectiveness is principally measured by how many lives they can obliterate don't have redeeming features.

Sure, the US Army killing machine and its weapons of mass destruction that have been used to kill thousands of Iraqis generated employment opportunities for some middle-income Americans, but rarely has the benefits and burdens calculus been so distorted.

Production of all weapons should be discouraged. The elimination of each weapon, irrespective of whose hands it is in, is a small but important step down the road of universal peace.

Thus, of course, North Korea should be inhibited from developing nuclear weapons capability. But just as pressing is the need for the United States to be stripped of its gluttony of nuclear weapons.

Obama only half nailed it when he said North Korea armed with a nuclear weapon poses a threat to the security of the region. He left out that the US equipped with its present nuclear arsenal is already a grave threat to the world.

Henceforth every US criticism of the North Korea or Iranian nuclear programme should be met with the inquiry, "but what are you doing about your nuclear arsenal"?

This is the best chance the world has to rein in the tyrant that is America.

* Mirko Bagaric is a professor of law at Deakin University, Melbourne, and a part-time member of the Refugee Review Tribunal.