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From: bane@parcvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup,net.politics
Subject: Re: Air raid on Libya and TV coverage
Message-ID: <295@parcvax.Xerox.COM>
Date: Fri, 2-May-86 02:04:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: parcvax.295
Posted: Fri May  2 02:04:59 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 3-May-86 21:18:43 EDT
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Xref: lsuc net.followup:1857 net.politics:5108

Well, the raid happened.  What is the result?  It had SOME effect: on
"All Things considered" (or was it "Morning Edition) I heard that
suddenly translators were being corrected: "Oh, no, we didn't mean
'liquidate American influence', liquidate means kill; we meant
'remove'."  The news story said that apparently khadaffi's coalition
(and I thought he ruled by himself!) was trying to tone him down.

On the other hand, days after I heard that, I heard that terrorism was
being increased, perhaps testing Reagan to see if he will follow
through on his commitment to militarily oppose terrorism.

Whether or not it was the right thing to do, one thing is certain: the
raid will be worse than useless if not followed up.  We've already
shown our willingness to use military force against terrorism (or,
we've already lowered ourselves to the terrorists level); to change
our tactics now would say, "well, we didn't REALLY mean it", which
prompts sneers from the terrorists, and won't convince anyone who
thought the bombing raid was a horrible thing.

				- rene
-- 
Rene P S (nee Steiner) Bane
bane@parcvax