Peace Corps Online: December 24, 2002 - Denver Post: Former Peace Corps Director Celeste calls it a mistake to focus exclusively on Iraq

December 24, 2002 - Denver Post: Former Peace Corps Director Celeste calls it a mistake to focus exclusively on Iraq

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2002: 12 December 2002 Peace Corps Headlines: December 24, 2002 - Denver Post: Former Peace Corps Director Celeste calls it a mistake to focus exclusively on Iraq

By Admin1 (admin) on Monday, December 30, 2002 - 10:25 pm: Edit Post

Former Peace Corps Director Celeste calls it a mistake to focus exclusively on Iraq

Read and comment on this story from the Denver Post that quotes former Peace corps Director Celeste as saying that we need to build an understanding of how "in a big and complicated world" Americans face varied and complicated threats.

"To focus exclusively on Iraq would be a mistake," said Celeste, who previous served as governor of Ohio and ran the Peace Corps.

"Any action that we take in Iraq needs to take into account ripple effects that go beyond the borders of Iraq, that affect not only Israel but Egypt, that affect not only Iran but also Pakistan," Celeste said.

"If we aren't at least sensitive to those potential ripple effects, then we may face both unintended and unexpected consequences that could be severe."

Read the story at:

Iraq not worst threat, experts say Unstable countries viewed as bigger danger to U.S. than Hussein regime By Bruce Finley*

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.

Iraq not worst threat, experts say Unstable countries viewed as bigger danger to U.S. than Hussein regime By Bruce Finley
Denver Post International Affairs Writer
Tuesday, December 24, 2002 - As the Bush administration bore down on Iraq on Monday, competing foreign-policy priorities had experts divided over what threatens America the most.

Pakistan's ruling Gen. Pervez Musharraf - enlisted by the U.S. as an ally against terrorism - faces rising Islamic militancy.

North Korea has moved to restart nuclear reactors that monitors warn could help make nuclear weapons.

Venezuela's political turmoil is still choking oil supplies. Afghanistan is veering toward the volatility seen under Taliban rule, with attackers last week firing rockets at a U.S. base after killing a paratrooper.

"Is this an administration capable of multi-tasking?" said James Lindsay, senior analyst at the Brookings Institution think tank and a former national security adviser under President Clinton.

"There's a real question whether the administration has allocated its time and energy properly among the many competing priorities."

Pakistan, for instance, with its nuclear weapons and topsy-turvy politics, poses a long-term threat to the United States "as severe or more severe" than the threat from Iraq, said former U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Celeste, now president of Colorado College in Colorado Springs.

"Unlike the situation in Iraq where the government would like to have nuclear weapons and the ability to deliver them, the reality is that in Pakistan they do have nuclear weapons and they do have the ability to deliver them," Celeste said.

"We have to be deeply concerned about the safeguarding of that nuclear arsenal."

The risk is that Pakistan's Musharraf could fall, said Celeste, 65, who represented the United States in South Asia from 1997 to 2001.

Anti-U.S. groups in Pakistan gained ground in recent elections, leaving the country's parliament split on whether to cooperate with U.S. forces in the campaign against terrorism. U.S. officials have accused Pakistan of coddling terrorists.

Pakistan also faces allegations it gave nuclear weapons technology to North Korea and Iraq.

Celeste's views reflect a growing consensus that the most serious threat to America in the future may come not from aggressive, attacking nations but from failing nations where, if governments collapse, the resulting conditions can affect people everywhere.

President Bush has said "failing states" are a major problem - though he's now focused on disarming Iraq.

The notion that failing states are most dangerous "is quite right," Lindsay said.

"The problem is that fixing failing states is really difficult to do. On one hand, the president recognizes that failing states are bad for America. On the other, he opposes nation-building."

Erosion from within is the crux of the crisis with North Korea, according to Jim Lilley, who served as U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 1986 to 1989 and visited North Korea's capital Pyongyang in 1995.

"What you have is a Stalinist nation that is bankrupt, the most totalitarian nation on earth," he said. "It is starving because it cannot produce food because of collectivized agriculture. It is very dependent on the United States, South Korea and Japan for its survival."

Dealing with North Korea must be a priority, Lilley said, but "there is not a military option. You must do it differently. The real leverage you have is economics. A military approach would be tragic."

On Sunday, U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said North Korea "is a bigger danger" than Iraq. Biden warned North Korea could have a nuclear bomb within five months.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, are directing a military buildup in the Persian Gulf for a possible war with Iraq. Bush has threatened war if Iraq fails to disarm, and Secretary of State Colin Powell last week called Iraq's latest arms declaration a total failure.'

Colorado College's Celeste said his purpose in citing Pakistan is not to argue against attacking Iraq but to build an understanding of how "in a big and complicated world" Americans face varied and complicated threats.

"To focus exclusively on Iraq would be a mistake," said Celeste, who previous served as governor of Ohio and ran the Peace Corps.

"Any action that we take in Iraq needs to take into account ripple effects that go beyond the borders of Iraq, that affect not only Israel but Egypt, that affect not only Iran but also Pakistan," Celeste said.

"If we aren't at least sensitive to those potential ripple effects, then we may face both unintended and unexpected consequences that could be severe."

To mute anti-Western sentiment abroad, some liberal scholars suggest increasing foreign aid, perhaps targeting schools in countries such as Pakistan, and providing better access to U.S. and European markets.

Others call for a bigger and better defense.

In Pakistan, anti-U.S. forces "are not actually running the government," but "it is not that improbable that the bad actors take control and then are in possession of nuclear weapons," said Tom Donnelly, national security analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

The emergence of this sort of threat along with Iraqi defiance, he said, "is an argument for having enough military strength to be able to handle both scenarios at the same time."

More about former Peace Corps Director Celeste

Read more about former Peace Corps Director Celeste at:

Peace Corps Director Celeste: Former Peace Corps Director Celeste brings class, political skills to Colorado College 8 December 2002

Peace Corps Director Celeste: Former Peace Corps Director Richard Celeste sworn in as Colorado College President 14 October 2002

Peace Corps Director Celeste: Former Director Celeste new President of Colorado College 19 May 2002

Peace Corps Director Celeste: United States Ambassador to India -- Richard F. Celeste 28 November 1997

Peace Corps Director Celeste: Celeste may be envoy to India: Ex-governor won't seek statewide office in '98 13 May 1997

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