Posted on 03/13/2002 1:46:48 AM PST by 2Trievers
DEALING WITH dictators is not the same as dealing with your next door neighbors. Critics of American foreign policy who say the United States should play nice with aggressive powers are not seeing the world very clearly. American officials who ascribe rational motives to men like Saddam Hussein are just as out of touch with reality. Two who are dealing realistically with foreign policy today are U.S. Sen. Bob Smith and President George W. Bush, and we are glad they are not listening to their critics. Sen. Smith helped bring to light the case of U.S. Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher, who was shot down over Iraq during the Gulf War in 1991. The indispensable Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz reported over the past two days that British intelligence officials have evidence showing that Speicher is alive and is being held captive in Iraq. Based on previous reports that Speicher may be a POW, Smith was instrumental last year in getting Speicher’s status reclassified from killed in action to missing in action. Amazingly, the CIA dismissed early reports of Speicher’s captivity. Some U.S. intelligence officials argued that Speicher could not be alive in Iraq because if he were, Hussein would have used him as propaganda by now. But Hussein kept for 17 years an Iranian pilot downed during the Iran-Iraq war, all the while denying that the poor man was a prisoner. That even some of our own intelligence officials cannot understand that Saddam Hussein is an irrational sadist shows how difficult it can be to deal realistically with foreign affairs. This is why having realists in elected office is so important. Compare, for example, President Bush and former President Clinton. In an interview last month with Crisis magazine, none other than Mikhail Gorbachev criticized Bill Clinton’s naive foreign policy and praised President Bush for his more observant approach to foreign affairs. Speaking of Clinton, Gorbachev said, “He is guilty for the fact that the U.S. has wasted those 10 years following the end of the Cold War. . . . I think Mr. Clinton, as a freshman in foreign politics, was spending too much time on the little details, and as a result, none of us was ready for the challenges of globalization.” Speaking of President Bush’s foreign policy, Gorbachev said, “It would be good if no one paid attention to those who criticize Bush in the United States or those who tend to criticize Mr. Putin in Russia.” Mr. Gorbachev, we agree.
I am thinking of how in Indianapolis Gorbachev was given an award by the wife of Mel Simon, shopping mall magnate and BIG Clinton supporter. They gushed over Gorbachev like he was the Second Coming.
Now, what to do, what to do? Gorby says their idol, Clinton, was INCOMPETENT! Hahahaha!
I hope every interviewer has this quote ready when Madeline Albright shows up on TV again ranting about Bush's foreign policy. Ha!
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