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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Orphaned Response (US aid to San
Message-ID: <7800794@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 28-Nov-85 18:25:00 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.7800794
Posted: Thu Nov 28 18:25:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Dec-85 20:47:52 EST
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Nf-From: inmet!janw    Nov 28 18:25:00 1985


[baba@spar]
>> Having sold the Nicaraguan people down the river with its aid to
>> the Sandinistas, the US has an OBLIGATION to at least match that
>> with aid to the resistance.  

>I hope someone has some verifiable figures handy.  The Carter ad-
>ministration  committed  a  few  million to the Sandinista regime
>shortly after they took power ...

I hope so too. More than $100 million is the figure I recall.
And then there was international aid endorsed by USA.

>At the time that the aid was offered, there were still significant democratic
>and nationalist factions within the Sandinista directorate.  Offering aid
>in an attempt to strengthen their position was both morally and realistically
>a reasonable thing to do.  I fail to see how doing so "sold the Nicaraguan
>people down the river", when the Sandinistas were already in power and
>indeed were at the peak of their popularity.

I have no doubt it was an honest mistake. Therefore,  "sold  down
the  river"  is  a  harsh  expression.  This  was  a one-liner in
response to some flaming rhetoric, not a  dissertation.  However,
if  it *was* a mistake that strengthened, not the democratic fac-
tions, but the totalitarian core, and gave a push down the  slip-
pery slope of totalitarianism,- *if* this opinion of mine is true
- the moral obligation is there.

>People of a Manichean bent will doubtless take this as an endorsement of
>the Sandinista regime.  They will be mistaken.

I hope you don't mean me. I detest Manichaeanism. I see much good
not  just  in  nice pink moderates like you but often in the most
flaming reds.  In fact, my maternal grandfather was a close  col-
laborator  of  Lenin  and  among the 20 men who voted to make the
disastrous Revolution. He was a decent guy, and I can prove it.
So  was  (I  think) Albert Speer, a close collaborator of Hitler.
Human affairs are complex.
 Still, some *systems* are much worse than others.

		Jan Wasilewsky