From: dave@gergo.tamu.edu (Dave Martin)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton
Subject: Re: Clinton Schedule for 9/1-3
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:52:00 GMT
Organization: Geochemical & Environmental Research Group, Texas A&M University
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <16856BB5B.JHARTLEY@cmsa.gmr.com>, JHARTLEY@cmsa.gmr.com writes...
}Well, Dave, your empathy truly impresses me.  I wonder what you thought
}about Iraq and Kuwait, then?  They too were not America's war nor your
}war.  Clinton now claims that he was totally behind the Desert Shield/Storm
}maneuvers (at the time he was not, but that is another topic).  Is he
}your idea of someone who is not ignorant?  Remember Jimmy Carter, who was
}totally against the Gulf War - yes the same Democratic Governor-turned-
}President who also said after the Russians invaded and butchered
}Afghanistan, "They (the Russians) really let me down.  I am very surprised
}that they did this. I now wonder just who you can trust."

As for "The Gulf War" (battle, really), I opposed it. We did not belong and,
in the long run, have only increased the hostile attitudes which many Arab
peoples have towards this nation. The West (mainly Britain and the US) have
interfered with the Middle East for most of the century and it did not help
at all when the West gave Israel to the Jewish refugees after WWII. The Arab
people see the double standard -- we tromp on Iraq for taking Kuwait but do
nothing to Israel for their acquisition of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and
the Sinai (though admittedly, Isreal has returned that one).
In addition to all this, Bush mangled it all by not preventing the oil
industry from "raping" the consumers with artificially increased prices,
which started quite a while before we began sending troops over and lasted
for months after the "war" had ended (at least they did here).
Clinton's stated position on the Middle East and the Iraq conflict are some
of the things that I do not agree with, but he has a greater potential for
reducing or ending the conflicts without violence than does Bush.

}The truth is that in avoiding armed conflict at any cost, you sometimes
}yield a much more costly (in human loss) conflagration.  Vietnam is now
}recalled with dishonor by the likes of you.  If you choose to belittle
}those who went and fought, and yes occasionally died, for that cause,
}that is your prerogative.  I will simply warn you that, with Bill Clinton
}as Commander-in-Chief, you will see many more dangerous conflicts than
}with a strong President who did not hide under his Uncle's skirt while
}others bravely obeyed their commander.  Before Bush and Reagan, the soviets
}were strong and had taken over Afghanistan, and had strong influences in
}South and Central America.  These are not true now, and you owe it to
}Bush and Reagan, not any Democratic president nor to the left leaning
}Democratic Congress and Senate.  Now that international affairs are in
}order, relative to the Carter years for example, people tend to focus
}on domestic problems.  I for one do not want a return to Democratic
}international bumbling.

And yet another person who believes that the "fall" of the Soviet Union and
all the strides in democrocy around the globe were entirely (or even mostly)
due to the actions of Bush and Reagan. International affairs are not in
order -- there is still much more to come, most of it due to the actions of
our last two Presidents. And I certainly do not "owe" Bush or Reagan for
the changes in the Soviet structure. I don't want to continue what has
already been twelve years of international military bullying and domestic
bumbling -- we've done that already, and I don't think Bush can change it.
I don't think that Bush *should* be the one to change it.
But perhaps the only way that people will learn is to keep Bush in -- though
I'd rather not have to watch the suffering that will result.

 -                                                                     -
 - Dave Martin - Geochemical & Environmental Research Group, Texas A&M - 
 - DAVE@GERGA[GERGO,GERGI].TAMU.EDU - BROOKS@TAMVXOCN.BITNET - AOL:DBM -
 -                                                                     -
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