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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KonKilo who wrote (8828)	9/21/2003 11:16:47 PM
From: KLP	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793677

Jacob Snyder on FADG today, had a well written thought on this, SC. And obviously, boycotts are better than bullets. France is experiencing a 25% decline in tourist dollars this year. Couldn't have happened to a political "leader" more deserving. Not everyone is so petty as to try and punish political opponents with boycotts. If you were to boycott everything that is produced by someone with which you disagree, you would have a 24/7 job trying to find substitutes.

To: KonKilo who wrote (8828)	9/22/2003 1:15:00 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793677

It takes a lot of guts to do this. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 22, 2003 GREENWICH VILLAGE Wolfowitz Stands Fast Amid the Antiwarriors By ERIC SCHMITT - NEW YORK TIMES Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz plunged into a bastion of antiwar liberalism — Greenwich Village — yesterday to voice a vigorous defense of the Bush administration's Iraq policy. In an often raucous 90-minute forum at the New School University, Mr. Wolfowitz alternately chided the audience for not giving the administration enough credit for toppling Saddam Hussein's brutal government, and took pains to explain the rationale for the war and the costly, difficult future in rebuilding Iraq. "No one that I know of would ever say that this war is cheap or easy," he said. "The stakes here are enormous." But Mr. Wolfowitz, considered by many to be the main intellectual architect of the Iraq war, was facing a tough crowd of 500 people, dominated by students, faculty and others who were clearly skeptical, if not outright hostile, to the American-led war in Iraq and its messy aftermath. "I think I'm glad to be here," said Mr. Wolfowitz, a native New Yorker, after a cacophony of boos, hisses and applause greeted his introduction by Jeffrey Goldberg, a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine, the event's sponsor. Mr. Wolfowitz has had a lot of practice in the last two years as the administration's lightning rod for Iraq policy. He barely flinched when a burly, bearded protester rushed the stage, yelling, "Nazi war criminal!" Security guards tackled and removed the man, the first of six people ejected. Mr. Wolfowitz used the occasion to remind all that Iraqis were also now enjoying the right of free speech. At many times during the 45-minute conversation he and Mr. Goldberg held onstage, and then in fielding questions, Mr. Wolfowitz seemed, in effect, to be pleading with the audience to give the administration a break on Iraq. "How much worse can it be than in the last 20 years?" he asked. For Mr. Wolfowitz, a former political science professor, the forum was an opportunity to explain his thinking on the war and its impact on stability in the Middle East and on security in the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks, aides said. Much of discussion had the feel of a Wolfowitz 101 seminar for people who perhaps up to now had heard or read only snippets of his comments. The United States waged war for three reasons, he said: the concern over Iraq's drive to obtain chemical, biological and nuclear weapons; Iraq's connections to terrorism; and Mr. Hussein's reign of terror that Mr. Wolfowitz said was responsible for perhaps a million Iraqi deaths. "It was a human rights nightmare," he said, emphasizing a reason that was not a principal one the administration articulated before the war, but has become so since. When pressed by Mr. Goldberg and audience members, some of these justifications seemed less certain. "Iraq did have contacts with Al Qaeda," Mr. Wolfowitz insisted, momentarily silencing the audience with an accusation even President Bush now says is unsubstantiated. He added, "We don't know how clear they were." On the issue of illicit Iraqi weapons, he did not have a ready response for why they have not been found. "Did the C.I.A. simply mess up?" Mr. Goldberg asked. "First of all, being wrong in this business does not mean messing up," Mr. Wolfowitz said, adding that Iraq, like North Korea, was among "hard targets" for intelligence analysts to penetrate. He said some Iraqis who had helped in the hunt had been assassinated by foes of the occupation, but he offered no details. He also defended postwar accomplishments like establishing municipal councils and reopening universities. As Congress prepares for hearings this week on Mr. Bush's $87 billion request for the military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Wolfowitz said it was crucial to stay the course and not "turn Iraq back to the Baathists who operate torture chambers." He insisted the administration has "a strategy with an end game" that hinges on speeding up training of Iraqi security forces and a new army. "They speak the language, and they know the cities they're policing," he said. "We want to get out of the occupation role." At the end, the applause sounded a little louder as Mr. Wolfowitz took a side door out to his limousine to avoid a noisy protest outside. nytimes.com

To: KonKilo who wrote (8828)	9/22/2003 6:43:42 AM
From: unclewest	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793677

Not everyone is so petty as to try and punish political opponents with boycotts. SC, How much California wine do suppose Frenchmen buy? The answer is a puny $13 million a year and we have a $7-8 billion deficit with France. That is a nut that needed addressing too. Fortunately the French made it easy. Iraq is all about money as far as France is concerned and always has been. The French could care less about oppression or freedom. They want their old and profitable contracts recognized. Boycotts are not petty...they are a way of voting. Doing business with friends has always been more fun. Supporting those who support you is good business. uw