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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: A Pleasant Precedent
Message-ID: <117200069@inmet>
Date: Thu, 18-Sep-86 22:31:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.117200069
Posted: Thu Sep 18 22:31:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 07:16:14 EDT
References: <1143@cybvax0.UUCP>
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Nf-From: inmet.UUCP!janw    Sep 18 22:31:00 1986


[mrh@cybvax0.UUCP ] [/* ---- "Re: A Pleasant Precedent" ---- */]
>> Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe, speaking at the non-aligned
>> meeting in Harare, denounced the Libyan raid and the US support
>> for the Angolan insurgents as acts of "international bullyism".

>Which they are.

Neither Mugabe's assertion nor yours can make it so.  The  Libyan
raid was self-defense; help to the Angolan resistance is interna-
tional aid. Their country is occupied by Soviet proxies.

I wonder what makes helping Savimbi less respectable in your eyes
than helping Mugabe?

>> In a very short while, he learned the happy news: the USA stopped
>> bullying his country with any further foreign aid.

>Golly, does that change the nature of the Libyan raid and the support
>for the Angolan insurgents?

The strawman is down and out.

>> People often ask why there's so much anti-American sentiment
>> abroad. Why, it's because this kind of normal and sane response
>> has been so rare on the part of the State Department.

>"Normal and sane", huh?  I suppose that next we get to watch you
>whine when the Soviets or Chinese start providing them with foreign aid.

Why? Since he bites the feeding hand  ...  why  compete  for  the
privilege ?

>> But is this the way to make us loved? Yes, it is: in many places,
>> people know about the USA mostly what the national  leaders,  and
>> controlled  media, tell them. If the leaders get the incentive
>> not to vilify the US, that makes a difference.

>That's right!  We should be economically pulling the strings of their
>media.  Obviously we should ensure only good propaganda about ourselves.  :-(

We should try to. *Only* is right: no propaganda is best of all.
But subsidizing *hostile* propaganda is foolish.

>> Foreign dictators sure  have  the  right  of  free  anti-American
>> speech  -  but  not  paid for by the American taxpayer! 

>Mugabe is not a dictator.  

He was not initially, but he's close to it now.  He knows  a  lot
about  bullyism,  national and international: his people are busy
hunting down poltical opponents at home and  fighting  rebels  abroad.

>However, by those same standards, any backbone  site  could  stop
>transmitting  your  articles. 

That would be  like  U.S.  satellites  stopping  transmission  of
Mugabe's  words  for  the press... I wouldn't approve of that. Be-
sides, *I* don't speak in any official capacity. Words of a  head
of state can even be a casus belli.

		Jan Wasilewsky

---
You call me unbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
And all for use of that which is mine own.
Well then, it now appears you need my help...

		The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene III