Ethics Newsline®

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Why is the situation in Iraq so complicated?

All across the United States, partial answers abound. We have too few troops, or too many. We’re not investing heavily enough. We’re spending lavishly on the wrong things. We don’t have a plan. We have too many plans. The Iraqis themselves aren’t ready for peace. We should have removed Saddam years ago. It was the wrong war with the wrong motives. We should have built a stronger international coalition. We need better leadership. Somebody — the media, the liberals, the Europeans, the youth — is undermining public support.

On two points, however, everyone seems to agree. The first is that if we erect the twin pillars of Western society — democracy and free enterprise — the Iraqis will gravitate to them, law and order will replace chaos, and the economy will respond. If we establish, in other words, the core elements of Western values, Iraq will prosper.

The second and darker point is that whatever we do seems to draw resentment. Increasingly, Americans are asking the question made popular by the events of 9/11: Why do they hate us so much?

These two points may be related. Perhaps Iraqis aren’t falling all over themselves to embrace Western culture because they resent the values that come with it.

An insightful new poll lends credence to that view. Published by Gallup on November 25, it achieved something virtually impossible until this year: It used a Western organization to conduct face-to-face interviews with 1,178 Baghdad residents, in their homes and without government interference. The results were remarkably candid, especially around one question: What, if anything, do you most resent about the West?

Some complained about the drug culture. Others said the West was arrogant toward Arabs. Still others said families in the West were disintegrating. And there were complaints that the West never takes serious action against Israel. But none of these answers got more than 6 percent of the response.

Topping the list at 36 percent, by contrast, were the responses that condemned the West’s moral standards. They focused on what Gallup interviewers called “pornography/immorality/fornication.” That was followed by the complaint that Western “traditions and cultural norms are totally different from Islamic ones” (19 percent) and that Western societies exhibit “excessive freedom and liberality” (17 percent).

Taken together, these answers indicate that Iraqis aren’t rejecting the West on political, economic, or military grounds. They’re not saying, “You have nasty elections,” “You exploit poor workers,” or “You’re shooting our people.” The rejection is clearly related to moral values. What most troubles average Iraqis, it seems, is the perceived decadence of the West. Rather than objecting to “such material issues as economic deprivations or perceived exploitation,” writes Gallup’s international bureau chief, Richard Burkholder, “respondents were far more likely to point to issues that relate directly to moral and religious values.”

That will make some Americans laugh outright. Human rights, civil rights, women’s rights, property rights, petty corruption — in area after area, they will say, Iraqi values lag far behind those in the West. However true that may be, it’s not the point. If Americans are going to ask why they are hated, they need to listen to candid replies. We may not like what we hear. In fact, we may be so enchanted by our deep-dyed pragmatism and so averse to any probing introspection about ourselves and our futures, that we dismiss the answers out of hand.

But what we’re hearing is not just the debate between two sets of moral values. We’re hearing the objection that the West doesn’t really think this whole topic of moral values matters very much. What we’re really being asked is, Do we really care about our values? Do we really think they make a difference? Or are they pleasant options that we add on later if we have opportunity? Are we happier just blasting along toward material prosperity regardless of the moral consequences?

I’m persuaded that, despite the recent litany of corporate scandals and personal malfeasance, Western nations still rest on a bedrock of goodness. But I worry that we don’t always act as though that bedrock matters. We may never persuade rank-and-file Iraqis to stand on that foundation, but we at least need to articulate more clearly not just the financial and political reasons for our presence in Iraq, but the ethical reasons. We need to pursue our goals in Iraq as though the moral conditions were essential elements of our strategy — since, at least among Gallup’s respondents in Baghdad, they really are.

(c)2003 Institute for Global Ethics

“We’re looking at bringing a court case that we’re as legitimate a media outlet as Disney or Viacom or Time-Warner. Why should they have an exclusive right to relay information to the public, and why should not NRA be considered as legitimate a news source as they are? That’s never been explored legally.”

– National Rifle Association (NRA) executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, explaining the group’s plans to buy a TV or radio station to use during the upcoming election cycle. The NRA wants to be treated like a news company, exempting the group from some political restrictions and “spending limits in the campaign finance law,” the Associated Press reported. (“AP: Gun Lobby Looking to Buy Media Outlet,” AP, Dec. 6)

CHICAGO
Beleaguered aerospace giant Boeing Co. weathered another tough week as chairman and chief executive Phil Condit resigned in the wake of a series of ethics scandals.

Saying “a new structure for the leadership of the company is needed,” Boeing’s board of directors accepted Condit’s resignation, ending his 38-year career at the company, reported the Reuters news agency.

Condit’s departure follows a tumultuous period for Boeing, which has struggled to stay dominant in the face of European competition and a series of scandals that has compromised the company’s contractor status with the U.S. government.

Condit’s resignation comes one week after the company fired chief financial officer Michael Sears for ethical violations involving Boeing employee Darleen Druyun, a former high-ranking Air Force official.

Druyun and Sears are suspected of tampering with the bidding process for a controversial and expensive plan for the government to lease Boeing refueling tanker planes. That plan was put on hold last week by U.S. Defense officials, reported the New York Times.

Although Condit has not been accused of any ethics breaches, the company’s troubles left him open to criticism.

“Boeing is more than in the penalty box with the Pentagon,” Prudential Securities analyst Charles Gabriel told the Times. “They have got to send a signal that the problem was deep and that they needed to cut the cancer.”

Lexington Institute military analyst Loren Thompson agreed, telling the Times that Condit’s resignation “is not about Boeing’s business, but is about Boeing’s reputation.”

Harry Stonecipher, the former head of McDonnell Douglas who retired from Boeing last year, has agreed to step up and serve as Boeing’s new CEO.

TOKYO
The chairman of consumer-credit firm Takefuji Corp. was arrested last week by police investigating an expanding web of wire tapping and covert surveillance they say was masterminded by top executives.

Takefuji chairman Yasuo Takei, 73, was arrested for allegedly overseeing the illegal scheme, which police now believe included wiretaps on at least two journalists who wrote hard-hitting articles on Takefuji.

The scandal hit the headlines last month after police arrested several Takefuji executives. Once they started talking about wiretaps, police began looking higher up the corporate ladder, leading to last week’s arrest, reported Japan’s Daily Yomiuri.

Police say they believe Takei ordered the wiretaps in 2001 after watching his firm’s stock price tumble in the wake of two uncomplimentary articles, ordering secret surveillance of the journalists who wrote and researched the pieces.

Takei, who denies wrongdoing, also is accused of ordering wiretaps on at least seven senior Takefuji executives, according to the Daily Yomiuri.

TOPEKA, Kansas
A federal grand jury in Kansas last week charged two former top executives of Westar Energy with 40 counts of criminal activity for alleged fraud and conspiracy that pushed the company to the edge of bankruptcy.

Former Westar CEO David Wittig and former executive vice president Douglas Lake are accused of bilking the Kansas-based utility by setting up a sham subsidiary that they used to embezzle funds.

The men also were indicted for allegedly falsifying and destroying documents, obstructing the grand jury’s investigation, and strong-arming Westar’s board of directors to hide their alleged crimes, reported the Reuters news agency.

“Through theft, fraud, and outright intimidation, Wittig and Lake concocted a scheme to loot the company of tens of millions of dollars,” U.S. acting deputy attorney general James Comey said last week.

The indictment, which follows a 14-month investigation, also alleges “that to cover up that theft, the defendants got rid of, spied (on), and tried to intimidate those who they thought might uncover their crimes,” Comey added.

The indictment demands the return of $25 million from Wittig and more than $7 million from Lake, as well as a mansion, a Ferrari, and other items bought with the allegedly plundered funds, reported Reuters.

Wittig and Lake worked together at Salomon Brothers in New York before moving to Westar — Wittig in 1995, Lake in 1998. Wittig resigned last year to defend himself against unrelated federal fraud charges.

The men are scheduled to appear in court on December 30.

SALT LAKE CITY
A Salt Lake judge last week threw out all charges against two men accused of using bribes to secure Salt Lake’s winning bid to host the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

U.S. District Court Judge David Sam dismissed the case halfway through the trial, castigating prosecutors for failing to prove their case.

Judge Sam was largely derisive of the prosecutors’ case throughout the trial, blocking various lines of argument and evidence put forward by the prosecutor, reported the Associated Press.

Last week’s ruling ends the government’s case against Tom Welch, who headed Salt Lake’s bid, and Dave Johnson, who assisted Welch. The judge’s ruling eliminates the option of appeal or retrial.

“To dismiss this case now is to deprive the jury of its right to make a statement that Olympic corruption must be stopped,” Justice Department fraud prosecutor Richard Wiedis argued during hearings last week.

The government had presented evidence designed to show that Welch and Johnson took funds from an athlete’s “assistance program” and diverted them to 15 voting members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Instead of paying for sports equipment for struggling athletes, the funds allegedly were used for Disneyland tickets, Paris hotels, U.S. school tuition, and other gifts to the IOC members.

Three IOC members resigned and seven IOC were ejected after news of the scandal broke.

LONDON
Faced with new anti-discrimination laws and a tough report on overtime abuses, British firms last week braced for changes to the way they do business, according to reports from the BBC.

On the anti-discrimination front, new laws kicked in last week banning workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and religious beliefs. Protections for gender and race already are in place.

The new protections faced little opposition, according to the BBC, although many say figuring out the intricacies of respecting widely varying religious beliefs and holidays may prove puzzling.

Also on the human-resources front, U.K. employers were slammed by a European Commission report that found firms pressuring workers to opt out of overtime protections.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), which obtained a copy of the unreleased report, said it found that employers were abusing workers by pushing them to forego rest breaks and to work overtime without pay.

Employers groups say that most workers who put in long hours do so voluntarily, often in hopes of furthering their careers.

The United Kingdom is the only EU nation that allows workers to opt out of laws limiting the workweek to a maximum of 48 hours, noted the BBC.

The TUC says that opt-out policy should be scrapped.

Special to Newsline from Canadian correspondent Errol P. Mendes

TORONTO
Hollinger Inc. — the Toronto parent company of media giant Hollinger International, which owns the U.K. Telegraph group as well as the Jerusalem Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, and other Chicago-area newspapers — continues to be rocked by scandals that swirl around Conrad Black, the former head of its international arm.

Mr. Black, who gave up his Canadian citizenship to accept a peerage in the British House of Lords, is a renowned iconoclast in Canada who has accused journalists, politicians, and many others of mediocrity and ineptitude.

Lord Black now finds himself the subject of much discussion and laconic analysis in the Canadian media.

The scandals reached the public’s attention when Hollinger International revealed that millions in unauthorized payments were made to its CEO, Lord Black, as well as to other senior executives.

Lord Black then resigned as CEO after pressure was exerted by a group of independent directors. Then all four members of the audit committee of the parent company, Hollinger Inc., resigned.

More recently, officials from both the parent company and the international arm were slapped with subpoenas by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after Hollinger revealed in filings with Canadian securities authorities that its financial position is so bad that it may default on some of its debt obligations.

ARUSHA, Tanzania
For the first time since World War II, an international tribunal has found journalists guilty of crimes against humanity through the use of broadcast and print media.

The UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sentenced two men to life in prison and a third to 35 years for their roles in the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which extremist Hutus massacred between 500,000 and 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

According to the Reuters news agency, Ferdinand Nahimana, founder of the radio station Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), and Hassan Ngeze, editor of the Hutu extremist newspaper Kangura, were both handed the life sentences, while Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, co-founder of RTLM, was given the 35-year term.

According to the New York Times, “The three-year trial detailed how the hugely popular RTLM station turned into a messenger of death. Copies of Mr. Ngeze’s newspaper showed it relentlessly denigrated the Tutsis and suggested on its cover that the machete was the best way to deal with them.”

The AP reports that Judge Navanathem Pillay of the tribunal, admonishing Nahimana for his station’s vitriolic broadcasts that were intended to incite violence, proclaimed: “You may have been motivated by your sense of patriotism and the need you perceived for equity for the Hutu population, but instead of following legitimate avenues of recourse, you chose a path of genocide. In doing so, you betrayed the trust placed in you as an intellectual leader. Without a firearm, machete, or any physical weapon, you caused the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians.”

The judge also scolded Ngeze for using his newspaper to encourage the killing of Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Prosecutors were overjoyed with their victory. “The court said there is a wide range for free expression, but when you pour gasoline on the flames, that’s when you cross the line into unprotected expression,” lead prosecutor Stephen Rapp told the Times.

“The conviction … is a very important development because it shows that the responsibility for the genocide is not limited to those who did the actual killing,” Rwandan prosecutor-general Gerard Gahima added to Reuters.

SAN FRANCISCO
Internet search engine Google last week said it would no longer accept advertising from unlicensed Internet pharmacies, following the lead of rivals Yahoo, Microsoft’s MSN, and America Online.

Google’s move comes after mounting pressure from concerned groups and congressional committees demanding an end to the Internet’s illicit and largely unregulated trade in painkillers and other drugs.

Search engines like Google often are the easiest means for people to locate prescription drugs online. Typing in the name of a wanted drug creates an instant list of links with drugs on offer.

Regulators say the proliferating number of unlicensed Internet pharmacies, coupled with a lack of government funding, so far has made the sites hard to regulate, reported the Washington Post.

Frustrated, regulators are now turning to the middlemen — search engines, credit card companies, and shipping firms — that facilitate the under-the-counter sales.

“These legitimate businesses are an important but faceless part of the supply chain for these dangerous drugs,” Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, told the Post.

Google and others say they likely will restore ads for Internet pharmacies next year after they can vet the companies to make sure they are operating responsibly.

WASHINGTON
A report released last week by Amnesty International cautions that many Western government are exporting technology and law-enforcement tools to countries likely to use the devices for torture.

The human-rights group’s report, “The Pain Merchants,” says the United States, United Kingdom, and several EU nations are allowing such exports despite government assessments that torture is a likely end result.

The report focuses on electroshock weapons and restraints, as well as leg irons, stun devices, chemical agents, and other items that can be used humanely, but often are misapplied to torture detainees and extract confessions.

“We are extremely concerned that in many countries devices are being authorized for use on the population without sufficient investigation of their effects on human rights,” Brian Wood, Amnesty’s expert on crime-control devices, told OneWorld.net.

Recent U.S. exports include roughly 10,000 leg irons to Saudi Arabia and $20 million in electroshock weapons and restraints, according to Amnesty figures.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce approved export licenses for shock weapons, stun devices, and similar items to 45 countries.

Fifty-seven EU companies and more than 60 U.S. manufacturers sought such licenses, reported OneWorld.

“It’s possible to use anything for torture,” the president of a U.S. manufacturer of electroshock riot shields told Amnesty, according to OneWorld. “But it’s a little easier to use our devices.”

The Amnesty International report calls on governments to scrutinize exports more closely, and uphold policies refusing such exports to nations that routinely torture detainees.

From the Gallup News Service:

“Nurses top Gallup’s annual survey on the honesty and ethics of various professions, followed by other medical professionals like doctors, veterinarians, pharmacists, and dentists. Car salesmen, HMO managers, insurance salesmen, and advertising practitioners are rated as the least honest and ethical. Overall, there has been little change in the public’s rating of the honesty and ethics of professions over the past year.

“The public’s image of the clergy has partially recovered from last year’s child sexual abuse scandals, while the images of business executives and stockbrokers remain slightly lower than they were before the recent wave of business scandals….

“As has been the case in four out of the five times they have been included in the poll, nurses rank higher than any other profession, with 83% of respondents saying the honesty and ethical standards of nurses are ‘very high’ or ‘high.’ The exception came in 2001, when firefighters (in their lone appearance on the honesty and ethics list) outscored nurses in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This year, medical doctors (with 68% of Americans saying they have ‘very high’ or ‘high’ honesty and ethical standards), veterinarians (68%), and pharmacists (67%) are the next-highest rated professions after nurses. The 68% rating for medical doctors is the highest Gallup has ever measured for that profession.

“The poll also finds that a strong majority of Americans have positive opinions of dentists, college teachers, the police, engineers, and the clergy. The 61% rating of dentists is also the highest Gallup has measured for that profession.

“Much lower percentages, between 20% and 38% of respondents, rate the honesty and ethical standards of psychiatrists, bankers, chiropractors, state governors, journalists, and senators favorably. The professions near the bottom of the list include business executives (18% ‘very high’ or ‘high’), congressmen (17%), lawyers (16%), stockbrokers (15%), advertising practitioners (12%), insurance salesmen (12%), and HMO managers (11%). Car salesmen, with a 7% rating, are last in this year’s survey, as they have been in almost every survey in which they have been included since 1977….

“The rating of the ethical standards of the clergy decreased from 64% ‘very high’ or ‘high’ in the fall of 2001 to 52% last November. This year’s rating shows a small increase, to 56%. Although the current rating of the clergy is still down slightly from the 2000 survey, it is close to the historical average of 58%. Younger Americans are much more critical of the clergy than are older Americans….

“This year’s survey asked Americans to rate the honesty and ethical standards of several government positions — state governors, senators, and congressmen. None of these professions score well. In fact, just 26% of Americans give state governors a high or very high rating, slightly more than the 20% rating for senators and 17% for congressmen….

“Business executives have never scored particularly well on this measure of honesty and ethical standards. Most likely due to the accounting and business scandals involving the likes of Enron or WorldCom, the image of business executives decreased from an already low 25% in 2001 to 17% last November. The current poll (18%) shows essentially no change in the public’s perception of business executives….”

“There is no readier way for a man to bring his own worth into question than by endeavoring to detract from the worth of other men.”

– John Tillotson (English prelate, 1630-1694)