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Pastimes : Ask Mohan about the Market -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (14182)	2/16/1998 5:38:00 PM
From: Liatris Spicata	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18056

George- <<but the media is silent on the hundreds of thousands Iraqi civilians who have perished because of the sanction>> I don't think the media is particularly silent about the plight of Iraqi civilians. Perhaps we learn about the world from different sources. <<our politicians cheered when the Indonesian military killed as many as a million "communists" within 6 months after taking power via a coup in 1965>> I know little about "the year of living dangerously", but could you document this "cheering" on the part of US politicians? I rather suspect it was something a little different than you are making it out to be. It is true that the US has supported some pretty unsavory rulers, to say the least, in its pursuit of its foreign policy objectives. Thoughtful leaders are keenly aware of the dilemmas they face- the choices are often not easy nor the moral compass simple to read. Many times the US supports what it supposes is the lessor of evils, and probably policy makers have made the wrong decision in this regard. However, it's not as though there always exist model Jeffersonian democrats who have a power base in a nation. Still that is a long remove from "support[ing] genocidal massacres when it perceives such massacres to be in its interest". Many times the US has used its influence to moderate human rights abuses- although as a former Amnesty International member I have been frustrated by our support of certain anti-communist dictators. That's not to say the US government "cheered" the abuses, however. I think your statement is false and would be interested in where you think US government policy has supported genocidal massacres in pursuit of foreign policy objectives. The plight of Iraqi civilians is certainly on the minds of US policy makers, and specific programs have been put into place to address humanitarian needs in Iraq. You may recall the two billion dollars worth of oil that Iraq is permitted to export quarterly to buy food and medicine. I think much of the plight of Iraqi civilians is the result of the Iraqi government not wanting to use the available mechanisms to aid its own populace. I somehow don't think one would appreciate this reading your post. Larry P.S. BTW, as horrible as some of the Latin dictators have been, I don't know of genocide in modern Latin America. Just for example, Pinochet in Chile was not exactly up against nice guys and I am not aware that his victims were selected on the basis of racial, ethnic or cultural identities. Many of his victims were, however, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'd also point to Pinochet's Chile as a place where the US did, belatedly, perhaps and not as effectively as might have been wished, address human rights concerns.