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From: holt@parsec.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Domestic Policy and Foreign Policy - (nf)
Message-ID: <2766@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Sep-83 23:40:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2766
Posted: Thu Sep  8 23:40:39 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Sep-83 19:30:59 EDT
Lines: 38

#R:tty3b:-20900:parsec:40500007:000:2061
parsec!holt    Sep  8 09:09:00 1983

    Mike Kelly accuses me of linking Superpower domestic policy with their
foreign policy.  He then states in so many words that such a link is
unwarrented and incorrect.  The remainder of his article deals with how
the US supports governments who repress the civil rights of their citizens.
    I must start out by saying that I do not want the US to prop up
corrupt regimes or regimes which restrict their citizens' rights.  A quote
from the article where Mike found my name follows:

   "Currently I'd vote for ending military aid to Marcos in the Philipines."

    Secondly, I would like to draw an analogy.  The United States is like a 
person with a conscience.  The USSR is like a person without a conscience.
The electorate in the US will not stand for blatent disregard for human
values.  Our top governmental officials make decisions based upon what is
"politically" most acceptable.  The US electorate is the United States'
conscience.  The Soviet leadership is answerable to noone.  It will do
what it pleases.  It doesn't even give a damn about world opinion in some
cases (KAL flight 007).  I think that this reflects both on the domestic 
and foreign policies of the two nations.  So, whereas foreign policy is
not directly linkable to domestic policy, both are a manisfestation of the
political system they are attached to.
    The article which I presented was an attempt to provide a new and
hopefully valuable insight into life in the USSR.  I believe that the
absence of human values and individual freedoms awarded by the Soviet
government to its own citizens says a lot about that government's
mentality.  That is the link which I was trying to portray.
    Suppose that there is a person who has radiation poisoning, and is losing 
weight and hair.  I would not say that the person is losing weight because
he is losing his hair, rather both are effects caused by the radiation 
poisoning.  Foreign and domestic policy are both symptoms of the political
system which produces them.


				Dave Holt
				{allegra,ihnp4,uiucdcs}!parsec!holt