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From: baba@spar.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Those Naughty Sandinistas
Message-ID: <162@spar.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Apr-85 13:15:16 EST
Article-I.D.: spar.162
Posted: Fri Apr  5 13:15:16 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Apr-85 03:23:03 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA
Lines: 21

I'm a little amazed at some of the arguments used to justify
and/or criticize the US's attempts to overthrow the government 
of Nicaragua.  It does not matter how free or fair their elections 
were.  The last Mexican elections were at least as rigged, yet I 
hear no one advocating a US-backed overthrow of the PRI.  Many 
nations find favor with the US without having even a pretense 
of democracy.  It does not matter how free their press is. 
There are plenty of countries in the world with less press 
freedom than Nicaragua, some of which are our allies.

What matters is that the Sandinistas overthrew a regime installed
and supported by the United States, and that they have subsequently
allied themselves with enemies of the United States.  It is the
judgement of the Reagan administration that such a state cannot
be allowed to exist in Central America.  It is reasonable to
debate the seriousness of the strategic problem posed by Nicaragua,
and whether or not the armed overthrow of the Sandinistas is the best 
solution.  But the degrees of personal and political freedom in 
Nicaragua are, alas, phony issues.

					Baba