Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The United States' First War Treaty?

Supergirl #44 by Sterling Gates and Jamal Igle (2009)

The President of the United States in the DC Universe travels to the nation of Markovia to sign what he thinks if the first ever free-trade agreement with them. What is he actually signing?

That's right -- he's signing a war treaty. That is, the President of the United States is signing an agreement with Markovia in order to engage in intergalactic conflict with New Krypton.

I've heard of peace treaties before (agreements that end war or conflict) and I've heard of treaties that establish an alliance between two nations during war, but I have never actually heard of a war treaty that actually sets out to create a multilateral conflict. It's also bizarre that General Lane implies that all the other nations of the world have already agreed to attack New Krypton and that Markovia would complete the set. Does this mean that the President thought he was signing free-trade agreements with every other nation on Earth? Does the U.S. now have a collection of signed war treaties from every country? "The War Treaty of Switzerland?" Why isn't there just one treaty?

It must be strange living in a world where security is such a major issue. According to a CBS/NYTimes poll from June 2009, 57& of respondents cited the economy and jobs as the most important issue facing the country. Health care got 7%. War and peace was only 2%. In the DC Universe, where global security is constantly threatened, do priorities change? Do health care and the economy take a back seat to global security and intergalactic freedom? And so much so that the world comes to agreement in attacking another planet so quickly and easily?

Apparently so. And yet, the governments of the world still felt the need to keep this agreement from the public. In fact, Project 7734, the government-funded organization in charge of curbing the new threat posed by the Kryptonians, is a furtive operation that not even the President knows he is funding. If security is, in fact, such a major issue, you would think that the taxpayers would be more willing to spend their dollars on it. And I'm sure Project 7734 could accomplish more if it weren't lurking in the shadows. This could only mean that they're planning something so vital to the Earth's future survival that the nations of the world agree to engage in intergalactic conflict, but so nefarious that despite the public's xenophobia, it would likely not support it.

The lesson here: elect a President who reads what he signs.

14 comments:

Joshua Macy said...

Must...resist...snark about Obama and reading what he signs...

Scott said...

Also important: elect a President who knows how to type Project numbers into a calculator and turn them upside-down.

Will said...

Since the earth in DC is threatened or nearly wiped out every other year or so (probably even more often in the timeline of that world), but it always survives due to the heroic efforts of the heroes, who also often contribute to rebuilding, I wonder if the DC earth is actually the ultimate nanny state where the nations don't focus at all on national security (after all, the regular armies are completely ineffective and mostly ordered by the heroes to hang back), but rely on the Justice League, et al. In that case, the social programs to help victims of the constant attacks might be the primary target. Either that, or the insurance companies would charge astronomically (and probably cost prohibitive for many people) premiums.

Will said...

Also, I am pretty sure a "war treaty" needs to be ratified by the Senate (or Parliament in England or equivalent in most western-style democracies), so even if the President doesn't read, wouldn't someone along the way say, "hey, maybe attacking a world of supermen and superwomen is a bad plan, especially if it isolates our best weapon - Superman."

ShadowBanker said...

Scott - Too bad it's not project 8008.

Will -- that's actually an extremely good point! That's why I think the question is so engrossing.

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