Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site tty3b.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!mgnetp!ltuxa!tty3b!mjk
From: mjk@tty3b.UUCP (Mike Kelly)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Important Vote
Message-ID: <636@tty3b.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 11:38:49 EST
Article-I.D.: tty3b.636
Posted: Mon Mar 18 11:38:49 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Mar-85 05:17:58 EST
References: <680@ihopb.UUCP> <489@harvard.ARPA>
Organization: Teletype Corp., Skokie, Ill
Lines: 25


 >From: matthews@harvard.ARPA (Jim Matthews)
 >... in fact only a small minority of the
 >contras have ties to the old national guard.  Men like Eden Pastora fought
 >the Samoza regime for decades, only to see his revolution co-opted by 
 >Marxists.  And that's why they are fighting in the jungles.
 > 

The 'small minority' also tend to hold leadership positions, though.  Besides,
more important than where they come from is what they do.  Independent
human rights groups have documented hundreds of cases of rape, murder of
civilians and attacks on non-military targets.   In the argot of the Reagan
Administration, that's called "state-sponsored terrorism".  Except this time
the state sponsoring it is us.

These people are seeking to overthrow an elected government.  You may not
like that government.  That is irrelevant; you are not Nicaraguan.  There
may be people in Nicaragua who don't like that government.  They can oppose
it through the electoral system, which they reject.  If they seek to overthrow
that government, then they are criminals and should be dealt with as such.
If the U.S. conspires with them to overthrow that government, then we are in
violation of the UN Charter and various other international laws.

Mike Kelly