Matt Welch Says Sovereignty Is Such a Lonely Word
On September 10, 1990, U.S. President George Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev issued a simple and remarkable joint statement. "We are united in the belief that Iraq's aggression must not be tolerated," the former Cold War opponents declared after a seven-hour meeting in Helsinki to discuss Saddam Hussein's annexation of Kuwait. "No peaceful international order is possible if larger states can devour their smaller neighbors." Observers understood immediately the historical significance of two previously antagonistic superpowers agreeing on the principle that countries cannot swallow one another. What was less obvious at the time is that the moment would look like science fiction from the perspective of the future as well. Matt Welch writes that Bush Sr. and every administration since has tattered the principle of not tolerating larger states devouring their smaller neighbors by conducting numerous sovereignty-busting, leaving Americans war-weary as Russia ignites its own expansionist military activities.