The article “Powell won’t attend UN racism meeting” (News, Aug. 28) reported shocking news: “Secretary of State Colin Powell will not take part in a UN conference on racism because the Bush administration objects to language being used by Arab delegates that Israel finds offensive.” Since President Bush’s inauguration, many columnists have written in glowing terms of the maturity of the Bush staff and Cabinet. But the refusal by the strongest military power in the world to participate in dialogue on one at the most important issues ever discussed by the United Nations demonstrates juvenile, not mature, reaction to disappointment.
Of course we would prefer that every participant at the UN conference would say only nice things about our friends, but it is asinine to exclude ourselves from world affairs because not everyone behaves as we think they should.
This is not the reaction to be expected of mature leadership, and President Bush must accept responsibility for Powell’s failure to appear at the conference in Durban, South Africa.
