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From: janw@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: A Pleasant Precedent
Message-ID: <117200089@inmet>
Date: Fri, 19-Sep-86 19:22:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.117200089
Posted: Fri Sep 19 19:22:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 07:16:56 EDT
References: <1143@cybvax0.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:cybvax0.UUCP:-114300:inmet:117200089:000:2315
Nf-From: inmet.UUCP!janw    Sep 19 19:22:00 1986


[rjn@duke.UUCP ]

 [Mugabe's aid cut after he tongue-lashed the US; I approved]

>I held off replying to the dozen or so other useless pieces
>submitted by janw@inmet (why the heck didn't you put them all in
>one article so that those of us who disagree with you didn't
>have to go through them all)

So it is your policy not to read whatever  you  disagree  with...
This explains a lot in your article, but it does not mean all you
disagree with ought to be one big note! 

>, but this one takes the cake. Now I'm not saying that Mugabe  is
>a  saint, he has certainly let down the ideals of his revolution,
>but he's no worse then Pinochet, Somoza, the Shah, Marcos or  any
>of the other dictators which the U.S. supports or supported.

U.S. never supported Pinochet. Are you arguing that, having
supported one dictator, we are now duty-bound to support another?
If not, what's wrong with cutting Mugabe's aid?

>The reason for so much anti-American sentiment is our support  of
>brutal  leaders  and  our  bullying  of smaller and less powerful
>countries.

Hackneyed hogwash! The USA is the Jelly Giant, the paper  tiger;
bashing  it is safe, hence all the cries of bully, bully. To test
the charge of bullying small countries, consider their UN  voting
records:  even  El  Salvador agrees with the U.S.  something like
20% of the time. So much for that myth.

As for dictators, no big nation is as fastidious as the  U.S.  in
choosing its allies - but you simply can't avoid some of them be-
ing dictatorships - this is the state of the world.
Using one dictator against another is often necessary.

The real fault is that U.S. doesn't reward its friends and punish
its enemies - so there's no incentive to speak well of it, so
it is a convenient scapegoat, like the Jews are for anti-Semites.

>Let's apply our policies evenly and stop aid to any country which
>denies basic civil rights to its citizens.

That would have lost WWII - no military aid for Stalin!

Foreign aid is not charity. It is, and must be, a tool of 
foreign policy. Promoting civil rights is *part* of that.

		Jan Wasilewsky
---
Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last -
You spurned me such a day - another time
You called me dog; and for these courtesies
I'll lend you thus much moneys  ?

	The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene III