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Volume CXXXII, Number 19 |
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Making fun of the little people in the big war
KATHERINE CRANE
COLUMNIST
Geographically, the Republic of the Marshall Islands is a group of tiny coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and Australia. Politically, it comes between Macedonia and Micronesia on the alphabetical list of countries willing to help the Bush administration oust Saddam Hussein.
There are plenty of other small, not to say minuscule, countries on the list, including Palau, a Pacific island known only for a tradition of bumping off its presidents. But for whatever reason, the Marshall Islands has come in for a lot of attention since joining the coalition. An article in the Washington Post* stated outright that the Marshalls could contribute nothing to the war effort, and Conan O'Brian ridiculed the coalition by citing the country's more than 60 percent unemployment rate and its economic dependence on the exporting of dried coconut.
The Marshallese are not amused. The Post* article got a hurt response from the Marshallese ambassador to the U.S., who reminded readers of the Marshallese citizens now serving in the U.S. military. At last count, there were 77, of which 71 are on active duty.
Because I once lived in the Marshalls, though only for half a year, eleven
years ago, I know that Conan and the Post* have their facts straight.
The Marshallese may have manpower to contribute, but they have nothing
else. They have no weapons, unless you count jellyfish, fire ants and
a delicacy called bwiro, which is made by burying breadfruit in the ground
for six months and is so overpoweringly delicious that someone could conceivably
expire from sheer delight after tasting it.
The real question is not what the Marshall Islands can give to the war
effort, but why they should have joined the coalition in the first place.
The Marshallese are, with very few exceptions, a pacific people. In 1931,
according to the National Geographic*, the country had gone twenty years
without a murder. Since then, the United States has used the island of
Bikini for a nuclear testing site, has given the islanders minimal compensation
for radiation-related illnesses, and has established what amounts to a
state of apartheid on the American military base on Kwajelein. The Marshallese
are less trusting than they once were, but they are still peaceful. Two
murders in as many years are enough to prompt worries that violence is
on the increase.
Before the first Gulf War began, the Marshallese parliament passed a resolution
expressing the country's hope that the conflict would be resolved peacefully.
The U.S. government, which usually appears not to have heard of the Marshall
Islands, kicked up such a fuss over this that the parliament reversed
its decision. If the Marshallese still want a peaceful resolution, is
it surprising if they keep that to themselves this time?
After all, the Marshall Islands has a lot to lose by offending the United
States. Without American money, the Marshallese economy would collapse.
The Marshallese depend on us for jobs, for compensation money, and for
the rent we pay on the island of Kwajelein. By a strange coincidence,
on March 31, six days after the Marshalls joined the coalition, the United
States decided after long negotiations to continue allowing Marshallese
citizens to enter the United States without a visa.
The Marshall Islands is in a difficult position. The United States has
set itself up for mockery by assembling such a coalition, and the mockery
falls equally, if unfairly, on the poorest countries on the list. The
Marshallese should realize, though, that in the end it is not the mouse,
bravely offering his help to the lion, who looks ridiculous, but the lion
who bullies the mouse into fighting at his side.
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