From: niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent)
Subject: Re: Weinberger's Pardon
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 05:25:10 GMT

In article <1993Jan9.040753.3016@cis.ohio-state.edu> csmith@tortoise.cis.ohio-state.edu (craig edward smith) writes:
>In article <C0KLAr.D8y@dscomsa.desy.de> Hallam@zeus02.desy.de writes:

>>|>Maybe selling arms to Iran was bad policy. But was it criminal? Did nothing
>>|>good come from it?

>>Plenty of evil came from it.

>>For a start the weapons helped prolong a war that cost a million lives.

>Prolonged the war? How long? Remember this was the Iran that sent children
>to slaughter, who were not armed with American weapons. It might also be
>argued that it helped shorten it.

Giving Iran desperately needed spare parts for their fighters, as well
as anti-tank weapons, helped shorten the war.  Right.

It was also evil because it encouraged terrorists to take hostages.  I
can't think of anything more evil than that.

>>|>Maybe Congress did not want funds going to the Contras, but the Executive
>>|>did. Who decides foreign policy, anyway?

>>The Senate, try reading your constitution.

>I HAVE read my constitution. The senate has the power to ratify treaties, but
>not to sign or create them. They have the power to declare war, but not to
>command the armed forces. The diplomatic corp is under the executive branch
>and it is the diplomatic corp, under the direction of the president that
>defines what foreign policy IS! YOU try reading your constitution!

You try again.  Diplomats do not make foreign policy.  They don't get to
*do* anything except talk.  The power to negotiate treaties doesn't give
you the power to send weapons or money to another country.

The Congress decides what the government can spend money on.  Only
Congress can do this.  And the Congress decided not to spend money on
the Contras.  Throwing the words "foreign policy" in there is a red herring.

>>|>Americans did not find this incident nearly as scandalous as the liberal
>>|>media did. The constant barrage of the media has shaped public opinion 
>>|>somewhat (just as it has made Anita Hill a martyr when the real martyr is 
>>|>Judge Thomas) but Americans still don't think it is that much of a scandal.

Right.  Except Justice Thomas is on the Supreme Court, and Anita Hill is
in Oklahoma.

>>In fact public opinion in the US was overwelmingly opposed to Iran and also
>>opposed to the supply of arms to the Contra terrorists.

>WRONG! They were in FAVOR of the contras! They knew the Sandanistas to be
>Communists and apposed them.

But unlike a few knee-jerks like the John Birch Society and Ed Ipser,
the rest of the world doesn't faint in shock at the word "Communist."
They knew the Contras to be heirs to the Somozan legacy, and they knew
Somoza to be an utterly brutal thug, so they opposed the contras just as
much as they opposed the Sandanistas.

-- 
David M. Nieporent   | Is it too early to start making predictions for 1993?
niepornt@phoenix.    | Probably, but that never stopped me before.
   princeton.edu     | ALE: Baltimore ALW: Chicago NLE: Montreal NLW: Atlanta
Baltimore Orioles 93 | AL MVP: Cal Ripken  AL Cy Young: Mike Mussina
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