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From: rjn@duke.UUCP (R. James Nusbaum)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: A Pleasant Precedent
Message-ID: <8675@duke.duke.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 5-Oct-86 00:26:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: duke.8675
Posted: Sun Oct  5 00:26:19 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Oct-86 10:06:27 EDT
References: <1143@cybvax0.UUCP> <117200089@inmet>
Reply-To: rjn@duke.UUCP (R. James Nusbaum)
Organization: Duke University, Durham NC
Lines: 93

In article <117200089@inmet> janw@inmet.UUCP writes:
>
>[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! 
>

Actually I have come to look forward to your articles.  If it's from
you I'm almost positive it will be some piece of commie blasting
right wing propaganda (which you have every right to post to the net).

>>, 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 US may not have officially supported Pinochet, but Jesse Helms
sure has, to the tune of providing him with secret information.  I
do not consider Mugabe in a league with any of those I mentioned.

>>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.
>

Bullying takes many forms.  Humanitarian aid should not be based on
politics.

>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.
>

But we're not just any 'big nation'.  We put ourselves forward as
the good guys.  We damage this image every time we support an unpopular
leader or hold back humanitarian aid because of politics.

>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!
>

As far as losing WWII, who knows?  No one can say for certain so
that is not a very good argument.

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

There is a difference between military aid and humanitarian aid.  I
certainly don't think we should give military aid to our enemies.  I
also don't think we should give military aid to anyone who does not
give its citizens basic human rights.  Humanitarian aid should be given
to anyone who needs it, no matter what.  Military aid should be a tool
of foreign policy, not humanitarian aid.  Please note that I realize
the problems of keeping humanitarian aid from being misused.

Jim Nusbaum


-- 
R. James Nusbaum, Duke University Computer Science Department,
Durham NC 27706-2591. Phone (919)684-5110.
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