DATE: Tuesday, April 8, 1997                TAG: 9704080010

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Opinion 

SOURCE: BY J. R. BULLINGTON 

                                            LENGTH:   68 lines

ITALY'S ARROGANCE SHOULD REMIND US OF OUR OWN

All of Italy is outraged by the death sentence imposed on Joseph O'Dell, who was convicted of the rape, sodomy and murder of a woman in Virginia Beach in 1985. Public opinion, fueled by massive press attention, has prompted the Italian government to make official appeals on O'Dell's behalf, including enlisting the European Union in the affair. Even the pope has been moved to intervene.

Most Americans would probably be more outraged by this foreign interference in our domestic affairs if we weren't so bemused by its silliness, hypocrisy and arrogance.

As Virginian-Pilot Commentary Editor Dave Addis pointed out in his March 23 column, ``It is passing strange that Italy, a nation that cannot master the art of enforcing its traffic laws, is convinced that it is better positioned than the people of Virginia Beach, or the commonwealth of Virginia, or the United States Supreme Court, to adjudicate a local murder case.''

Even American opponents of the death penalty can surely recognize that Italy's outspoken, strident support in this case can do their cause no good. Americans, like all people, tend not to appreciate foreigners telling us how to order our society or enforce our laws.

Yet at the same time, we Americans, acting through our elected politicians, have little compunction in publicly, self-righteously and repeatedly telling foreign countries that they must conform to our norms and values and political preferences.

Nowhere is this more evident than our self-proclaimed ``War on Drugs.''

Every year, on March 1, the president is required by law to ``certify'' a list of 27 countries as cooperating allies in that war. If they are not certified, they face various American sanctions. This year, the principal controversy was over whether or not to certify Mexico. Among other problems, Mexico was charged with refusing to let American narcotics cops carry arms inside Mexico.

Shouldn't Mexicans find it ``passing strange'' that the United States, by far the world's largest consumer of illicit drugs and therefore manifestly a nation that cannot master the art of enforcing its own narcotics laws, presumes to sit in annual judgment on the anti-narcotics performance of other countries? And what would be our reaction to a Mexican demand that gun-toting Mexican cops be allowed to operate inside the United States?

Another example of this American tendency to arrogance in foreign affairs is the Helms-Burton Act, which imposes penalties on foreign companies for making investments in Cuba. This unilateral imposition of a politically driven American policy on non-American companies has drawn universal condemnation, even from our closest friends, such as Canada and Britain.

And to make matters worse, the Clinton administration has proclaimed U.S. unwillingness to be bound by decisions on Helms-Burton cases brought to the World Trade Organization. Ironically, it is the United States which has worked the hardest of any country to establish the rule of law which the WTO represents in global trade, and in fact benefits most by it.

Other examples include our refusal to pay our United Nations dues; the congressionally mandated requirement for the State Department to produce an annual human-rights report card on every country in the world, irrespective of its record; and the 1994 campaign against Singapore's practice of ``caning'' law violators, at least when it was applied to an American.

Such arrogance and hypocrisy are unworthy of a great nation. Moreover, they undermine our ability to advance our legitimate and important foreign-policy goals.

Insofar as it has any effect at all beyond mere annoyance, does Italy's campaign on behalf of O'Dell make it more or less likely that we will heed Italy's advice on other matters? Is this the most-productive use of Italy's international-affairs resources and influence? Is American foreign-policy arrogance likely to have different results?

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