NOT WORTH THE PAPER THEY'RE PRINTED ON: PERILS OF CLINTON-STYLE DIPLOMATIC AGREEMENTS

The Iconoclast ^ | October 27, 2002 | Murray Soupcoff

[Apolitical]

It's inevitable like death and taxes. Should some murderous tyrant or other appear on the world scene and flaunt his dirty deeds in front of the international community, then the "negotiate an agreement" crowd crawls out from under the woodwork to denounce any talk of using military force to reign in the aggressor.

You know all the sloppy slogans by now: "Give peace a chance," "Negotiations, not war," "Diplomacy not threats," "Peace in our time," "I never had sex with that woman!" Well, maybe not the latter. But speaking of America's orally-fixated ex-president, the Clinton presidency admirably demonstrates all the wishful thinking, procrastination and irresponsibility involved in depending on the diplomats to "negotiate" the pages and pages of high-fallutin' hot air called "international agreements" these days, as well as the dire consequences of such foreign-policy sophistry.

The reflexive "negotiate a treaty" sensibility is just another facet of today's liberal-left mindset, moulded by the heady experience of last-minute settlements in labor negotiations, legal horse trading in plea bargains on behalf of guilty criminals, and negotiated political "compromises" (translated sellouts) in today's legislatures.

The problem is that what works in a democratic domestic context may not work quite so well in the pursuit of international peace. Reigning in amoral rogue states requires anything but the endless bargaining, compromise and sellout of principles that is perceived to work so well in negotiating with labor unions to buy "labor peace," in hammering out plea bargains to clear the courts of expensive trials, and in forging political "compromises" to pander to special interest groups.

Negotiating... and negotiating... and negotiating ad absurdum, to come up with reams of paper filled with lofty language and obfuscating legal terms, may be appropriate for settling a truckers' strike. Allowing amoral lawyers for the latest billionaire business felon caught with his hand in the cookie jar to cop a plea may allow the courts to run more efficiently (and prosecutors run for higher office). And political compromise may help the trains run on time, as well as insure re-election. But it simply will not suffice when the safety of entire populations is at stake, when the basic principles that underlie our way of life are under attack, or when the forces of evil threaten to rum amok.

Which brings us back to the craven Clinton administration where talk, talk, talk, and meaningless written words (and more words) in the form of accords, frameworks and treaties, was the solution to every international crisis (unless the president was under threat of impeachment, in which case a quick missile attack on a pharmaceutical factory in the Sudan might be justified to deflect public attention away from presidential misdeeds).

So under the inept foreign-policy reign of Bill Clinton, we had the much-ballyhooed negotiated agreements for "peace" in the Middle East, Northern Ireland and the Korean peninsula. And of course, as we know now, all these negotiated settlements totally unravelled, along with a lot of Nobel Peace Prize-winning diplomatic bafflegab.......

[Apolitical]

More testimony to Bill Clinton monumental mismanagement and amorality as president.

[Seeking the truth]

You can add "There was no legal reason for us to take Bin Laden (paraphrase)

I have that tape of Clinton refusing Bin Laden's handover here at my 0cents.com site

The Clinton Legacy (Vinyl or Magnetic Bumper Sticker or License Plate)

[Quix]

PLEASE consider registering at Oprah's site and posting a CONCISE SUMMARY IN YOUR OWN WORDS. She doesn't allow posting other copyrighted material without written authorization. But you could have a significant impact by summarizing it in your own words and suggesting keywords people could search on the net that would result in the article.

She also doesn't allow posting links to other sites.

But there are people who were raised liberal but who are still fair minded enough and open minded enough to listen to reason. We need your help there.

Here we are preaching to the choir. There's no place like FR which we desperately need but the country needs us FREEPERS to spread the news, so to speak.

[bandleader]

Bill Clinton was nothing more than an"ENABLER"!He tied America's hands behind her back while he gave licence to TYRANTS and TERRORISTS!!!

[Seeking the truth]

Hard to believe this has only 4 posts!