Global Policy Forum

By Derrick Z. Jackson

The United Nations voted to go to war against the world's worst weapon of mass destruction. The United States is against the resolution.

This news passed by almost without notice almost two weeks ago. In Geneva, about 170 nations met in an effort to agree on a global treaty on tobacco. Cigarettes, according to the UN World Health Organization, kill 4 million people a year and will kill 10 million a year by 2030, according to current trends. Without a war on tobacco, cigarettes will kill 500 million of the 6 billion people alive today on Earth.

Most of the nations that gathered in Geneva agreed to final text that will be presented to the WHO in May for adoption. The treaty, called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, requires nations to implement serious tobacco control programs. It would require cigarette companies to put a health warning that would take up at least 30 percent of the surface of a pack. It would eliminate labeling that misleads smokers to think that a particular "light" or "mild" cigarette is less harmful than others.

The pact would require signatories to move toward a comprehensive ban on cigarette advertising "within the limits" of a nation's laws. Signatories would be required to fund tobacco-control programs and consider taxes that reduce smoking. With most of the world now ready to fight a chemical weapon that could wipe out the equivalent of two United States, WHO director general Gro Harlem Brundtland called the treaty a "real milestone in the history of global public health."

The treaty is a real millstone for America. The problem is the evil dictator who is killing millions of his people is not Saddam Hussein. The madmen are holed up in New York skyscrapers and corporate bunkers in Virginia and North Carolina. They have paid handsomely to assure that President Bush will not launch an attack.

In the 2002 election cycle, Big Tobacco gave $6.4 million of its $8.1 million in political contributions to the Republicans. Philip Morris, the world's biggest exporter of cigarettes, alone paid $3.4 million to buy influence, with 80 percent of its contributions going to Republicans or the Republican Party.

With that influence, the ink had not even dried on the treaty when the U.S. delegates started making noise that the Bush administration might not sign it. The U.S. health attache to Geneva, David Hohman, said America wants the treaty to allow a nation to opt out of provisions they find objectionable. For the United States, that means just about the whole treaty.

According to news reports, the United States is not happy with the idea of federal funding of anti-tobacco programs. The United States is against the treaty's ban on free samples. The United States is not happy about the proposal to have giant health warnings on packs. The cigarette industry is crying that such large warnings would violate their trademark rights. Hohman said the United States is "disappointed," calling the treaty's provisions a "complication for our legislative process."

A few other nations, such as China, Japan and Germany, nations where cigarette production or advertising are rampant, have joined the United States in objecting to parts of the treaty. But the United States was so singularly obvious in its attempt to sabotage it that it was called "arrogant" by Thailand officials. American tobacco control activists even asked that the United States withdraw from Geneva rather than be such a drag on the negotiations. American Cancer Society CEO John Saffron said, "At this critical juncture, the United States government is working methodically to weaken virtually every aspect of this treaty. We call on the U.S. government to observe the first rule of the Hippocratic Oath: Do No Harm."

A week ago, in referring to Saddam Hussein, Bush said, "The global threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction cannot be confronted by one nation alone. ... A threat to all must be answered by all. High-minded pronouncements against proliferation mean little unless the strongest nations are willing to stand behind them -- and use force if necessary."

For the world's greatest weapon of mass destruction, Bush would leave the world alone. In a couple of months, the tobacco treaty will be presented to the World Health Assembly. If it is adopted, it will go out for ratification. Only 40 nations need to ratify it for it to go into effect in the countries that approve it. If the United States does not get behind the treaty, it will be every bit as cynical on cigarettes as it accuses Saddam Hussein of being with weapons inspections.

Hohman said the U.S. objections "will have to be addressed" before it signs the framework. That is another way of telling the world to get lost as we give aid and comfort, if you go by the actual carnage, to the globe's most dangerous terrorists.

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