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From: jim@ISM780B.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <39000017@ISM780B.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Nov-85 23:05:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ISM780B.39000017
Posted: Mon Nov 18 23:05:00 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Nov-85 21:57:25 EST
References: <7559@ucla-cs.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:ucla-cs:-755900:ISM780B:39000017:177600:2053
Nf-From: ISM780B!jim    Nov 18 23:05:00 1985


>>If the Sandinistas are so totalitarian, why haven't they killed the new
>>leaders of La Prensa?  Why haven't they even shut the paper down?
>
>because if they do so they will be totally isolated from the western world
>by loosing the support or sympathy they have from some western countries
>and especially the Contadora group and the rest of south america.
>you see, whenever someone says "there is no freedom of the press in Nicaragua"
>they can say "but look at La Prensa"...

You are right, they can say that.  Whenever someone says "there
is no freedom of the press in Nicaragua" you agree with them
simply because you already believe it.  Arguments that Nicaragua
is a totalitarian regime are based entirely on emphatic
assertion, and ridiculous ideological blathering that all
governments of a certain form necessarily take a certain course
(I heard Kissinger say in his interview with David Frost that it
was ok to depose Allende because, not only was he a Marxist, but
he was only elected by a plurality).  But if you want to know the
number of teeth in a horse's mouth, you should get it straight
from the horse's mouth.  Check with people who have actually
*been* to Nicaragua; if you have never spoken to such a person
then your comments on the subject are nothing more than stupid
knee-jerk reactionary right-wing drone repetitive rantings
following a party line.

The fact is that it is the U.S. that is totally isolated from
world opinion concerning Nicaragua, and that rejects the
Contadora process.  The main question that we should really be
concerned with is, does the U.S. have the right to destroy the
government and the people of the sovereign nation of Nicaragua?
And even if, incredibly, it is decided that we have the right,
we might want to ask whether we should bother, because unlike
"other" totalitarian regimes, the Sandinistas have armed not just
the army but the *populace*, and those people aren't too keen about being
"liberated", so we are likely to have a rather bloody mess on our hands.

-- Jim Balter (ima!jim)