Don't Turn Sick Days Into Work Days

Ralph Peters, author of Beyond Terror and a featured interviewee in the June issue of Reason, proposes a new regime of international sanctions for countries that cover up disease outbreaks.

Comments

[James Joyner]

As I note on OTB, such a law has the same flaw as all international law--it only works against the willing and the powerless.

[Amy Phillips]

Not a chance our government would ever sign on to something like this, and with good reason.

With all the debate going on about biological weapons lately, it rarely gets discussed that the US has them. In fact, we're researching newer, better germ warfare all the time. Imagine (and hope it never happens) that one day, one of the military labs doing that research were to have some sort of accident. Even in the best case scenario, it's entirely possible that some people in the surrounding areas could be infected. In that case, the U.S. government might want (and I would argue, should definitely keep the option open) to be able to quietly treat the infected, quarrantine the area, and clean up the mess without having to announce to the world what sort of weapons research we're doing, where we're doing it, and how to nullify the poisons.

While that's not exactly what China did, they also weren't just being sneaky Commies. While I think this decision was wrong, they felt that the need to contain mass panic was greater than the need to seek outside help and warn others of the danger. The point is that sovereign nations can and should make those determinations about how best to protect their own citizens.

I might be less suspicious if the resolution didn't call for mandatory punishment. There needs to be a way to distinguish between genuine attempts to protect national security and coverups meant to make leaders look better while unneccessarily risking lives. I believe there is a distinction.

In any case, it will never happen, because, as with Kyoto, the ICC, or war with Iraq, the US doesn't take orders from the UN.