This week in Nairobi, Kenya, the international community will be joining forces to promote a future where landmines no longer exist. Many distinguished humanitarians — including five Nobel Peace Prize laureates — will be participating in this summit and support the treaty, officially titled “The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction,” otherwise known as the Ottawa Treaty.

This summit involves thousands of representatives from more than 144 countries, and will hopefully end the use of landmines and save the lives of thousands of people. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 people are killed each year because of detonated landmines, and many more people are burned or permanently disfigured because of landmines. The vast majority of people either maimed or killed are innocent civilians.

Who did the United States send as a representative? No one. Although the United States has manufactured landmines and used them in times of war, it refuses to participate in this treaty.

According to CNN, the United States is not sending participants because “of the cost of participation and disagreement with crucial elements of the pact.” Cost of participation? Was there a registration fee? I guess policy that saves lives “disagrees” with the U.S. way of thinking.

Reading what the State Department has to say as of Feb. 27, its reason for not signing the Ottawa Treaty is because of policy differences and U.S. interests the Bush administration doesn’t want to deal with. The United States has signed the Amended Mines Protocol to the Convention on Conventional Weapons from the United Nations; however, this treaty does not end the use of harmful landmines, but discourages the use of landmines on civilians. The State Department lays on thick the impression the United States is a humanitarian front-runner and, in typical American arrogance, points out how U.S. policy is better than any other policy.

The United States is not exactly sitting well with many countries. President Bush was met with protests on his South American visits, and European countries overwhelming supported his defeat, with the exception of Poland.

By not participating in treaties and talks like the Nairobi Summit for a Landmine Free World, the United States continues to perpetuate its arrogance and unilateral stupidity. Sure, we’re a superpower, but does that mean we can bully the rest of the world and ignore international rules? Why haven’t we signed up for the International Court of Justice? Could it be because Bush would be behind bars for war crimes in two seconds?

This week, President Bush is headed to Canada for a little bit of PR work to improve the image of the country. If it’s anything like the most recent state visits, we’ll be lucky if the Canadians don’t deny Americans the privilege of claiming their country when abroad.

Interestingly enough, the Canadian government — which hosted the Ottawa Treaty Summit and abides by the International Court of Justice — isn’t a big fan of our president either.

Hey, maybe they’ll be able to do what the Democrats were unable to do in November and make the rest of the world happy and put this war criminal behind bars. After all, they’re not as unilateral in their foreign policy.

If the United States wants to be seen as more of a global participant, it needs to learn how to participate in worthwhile global affairs that actually save lives instead of perpetuating the idea of the ugly American.