Dear CCI Followers,
Krishen Mehta and I have been discussing the tragic dimensions of current U.S. policy.
We have been shocked that China, our chief trading partner, is being blamed for the COVID-19 outbreak and its “cover-up” while they were trying to get the virus under control. Wouldn’t we have done the same? We are also deeply concerned by allegations regarding China and other countries that are mild given our record of foreign interventions over the past decades.
The current psychological projection being used to create China as our enemy is even of greater concern since they too have nuclear weapons!
Please study the “Tragic Folly of Blame” and send to your friends and families.
Our hopes for a sustainable future,
Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives
Krishen MehtaFormer Partner, PwC, Senior Global Justice Fellow, Yale University, Board of Trustees, Japan Foundation in Support of Human Rights Watch
THE TRAGIC FOLLY OF BLAME
By Sharon Tennison and Krishen Mehta
During this tragic era of Covid-19, at least six lawsuits have been filed against China in U.S. federal courts seeking damages for deaths, injuries, and loss of income from this illness. U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has been strident in his attacks on China. Supportive of legislation being drafted to strip China of its immunity from lawsuits in U.S. courts, he urges that China should ‘pay a price’ for this calamity. President Trump has called for reparations.
The last major pandemic in recent memory was the Spanish Flu that lasted for 36 months, from January 1918 to December 1920. It infected about 500 million people, at that time about one-third of the world’s population. The deaths worldwide were about 50 million with some 675,000 of them in the United States.
The first known case of the Spanish Flu was in March of 1918 at a U.S. army base at Fort Riley in Kansas. Eventually, 40% of the U.S. Navy was hit with the flu, while 36% of the Army became ill. Troop movement in crowded ships and trains spread the killer virus to Europe and then to the other continents. As is well known, more U.S. soldiers died from that flu than were killed in battle during World War I.
Our question to Secretary Pompeo is this: Were any lawsuits filed by other governments against the United States (or the state of Kansas) for the killer flu of 1918? The answer is a resounding NO. None were filed.
Instead of legal suits, countries worked together to stem the devastating effects of the virus. Due to innovations in science and medical research that followed, the development of the first flu vaccine followed in the 1940’s. This collaborative effort involved all countries; there was no blame cast on anyone. It’s time to look back at history, and avoid a ‘blame’ trajectory that will not serve the common good.
History is full of ‘blame’ that has gotten us nowhere. In fact, it has damaged both sides: those that assert blame and those on the receiving end.
Blame is a game for which our children get called on at school. It’s an effort to make someone bad without taking any responsibility to one’s self, whether it’s a child or a politician. The virus has taught us (here in the United States) the gross inequities in our own society, the tragedy that a for-profit health care model can inflict on us, and a reminder of the racial injustice inherent in the death toll that we see around us.
Let us look at a few more examples from history:
The Black Plague Deaths in Europe from 1348 to 1351 resulted in many persecutions and violent attacks against Jewish communities living in Europe at the time. It took the proclamation of Pope Clement VI to remind people that the Jews were not behind the black deaths, that they themselves were equally the victims of it.
World War I resulted in over 40 million casualties. Who was to blame? There was Britain, France, and Russia on one side, and Germany and Austro-Hungary on the other. Each blamed the other, at what cost?
The Treaty of Versailles, signed following the tragedy of World War I, contained Article 231, commonly known as the “war guilt clause”, placing all the blame for starting the war on Germany and its allies. World War II that followed had nearly 75 million dead, including military personnel and civilians. Who was to blame?
The Vietnam War had many origins, with the U.S. blaming North Vietnam for its actions in the South. But it is also telling that 25 years later, Robert McNamara, the U.S. Defense Secretary during the War, openly wept on television as he talked about Vietnam, “We were wrong, terribly wrong,” he tearfully said to the nation.
Today, we could be on the verge of a nuclear war considering that the main Arms Control Agreements have been shelved. Rising tensions with Russia, due to our perceived but not proven ‘election interference’ have sidetracked any progress on arms control. The START Treaty, the last remaining limit on the arms race, expires February 2021, a treaty that Russia has agreed to sign but we have not. Will we set aside the “blame game”, and take the nuclear confrontation off its hair-trigger status? For the sake of the generations that follow, it is urgent that we do so.
Today there is blame also on the World Health Organization for the Covid-19 crisis, without taking into account the essential role it has played in global governance of health and disease since its founding on August 7, 1948. The Oslo Peace Accords have become part of history with each side blaming the other. The European Union faces its own pattern of blame. Let us also not forget the unjust and tragic internment of the Japanese Americans during WWII. In a way, that is no different than the Asian Americans being blamed in many parts of our country today for the unfortunate Covid-19 crisis.
We, as lay citizens, argue that it is time to go beyond the historic folly of blame, and set the stage for a more peaceful and amicable world. We will be judged by how we deal with this virus and its consequences – not by finger-pointing blames or tweets.
Let us also remember John F. Kennedy’s admonition to us in his eloquent address of June 10, 1963 at American University when he said that “We all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s future, and we are all mortal”. Blame has no role in such a future.
It is time to move beyond the tragic folly of blame, and do what we can to further reconciliation and cooperation. And the time for it is now.
Sharon Tennison is President of the Center for Citizen Initiatives, and Krishen Mehta is a Former Partner at PwC, Senior Global Justice Fellow, Yale University, Board of Trustees, Japan Foundation in Support of Human Rights Watch.