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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Catfish who wrote (16538)	6/26/1998 1:42:00 PM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

June 26, 1998 ON MY MIND / By A.M. ROSENTHAL Clinton Gets Results After six years, President Clinton's foreign policy has brought dramatic results. It has strengthened the world's three major dictatorships, won the contempt of America's friends and enemies for its word and determination, and helped spread missile weaponry. That alone would be a historic record for a President to achieve with two years still to go. But Mr. Clinton has also labored to create attitudes in Americans themselves that demean America's vision of itself and of duties that freedom imposes on it. Never before have the thoughts, statements and actions of an American President been so favorably influenced by any dictatorship as Mr. Clinton's by China, and its business, intellectual and journalistic support groups in the U.S. Many of America's allies have also been doing their best to help China and the two other dictatorships -- Iraq and Iran. Like Mr. Clinton in China, they chase trade profits over democratic principle. But America's allies never claimed leadership of the free world or keen interest in democracy outside their borders. For them it is business as usual -- like the buildup of Saddam Hussein before the gulf war. But for an American President to walk away from those who believed in America to those who torture them is, of course, betrayal of U.S. history and promises. Mr. Clinton's grand voyage to China is a symbol of his achievements. Already he has given Beijing much of what it craves -- missile technology and huge commercial trade, all benefiting the Chinese Communist Party and armed forces, a gentle eye toward Chinese missile and nuclear sales, and a complete reversal of his pre-election promises to link trade with human rights. So, on to Tiananmen we go. Could the killers in the Politburo have dreamt that a U.S. President would give them so much honor, respectability and absolution -- all for vast trade profits, which turned out to be vast trade deficits for America? About Iraq: Mr. Clinton, like George Bush before him, let Iraq get away with what Saddam Hussein then wanted most. That was clear fields to slaughter the Iraqi opposition. Then, when Saddam smashed the U.N. inspection system for as many months as he wished, Mr. Clinton agreed with the U.N. on the appropriate punishment: none. Now, after seven years of Iraqi refusal to reveal the truth about its preparations for making weapons of mass destruction, a plan was worked out at the U.N. that could have lifted sanctions, possibly beginning in October. Let's not be dullwits: everybody at the U.N. knows Saddam will again set to making forbidden weapons and already is revered by Arabs as the victor over America, which he is. But evidence of Iraqi nerve gas production was discovered, so the sanctions-lifting may be delayed. Washington has the veto power -- but no longer the political clout to prevent U.N. members from selling Saddam what he wants, veto or no. The U.S. also refuses to pay its U.N. dues. Blame this on Congress, not the Administration or the U.N. delegation led by the much-respected Bill Richardson. But nobody likes losers and deadbeats, particularly two in one. Now it is Iran's turn for a Clintonian helping hand. He waived sanctions against Russia and France for pouring billions into Iranian gas fields. Then he offered to start making nice with Iran itself, not just its suppliers. Iran is still run by the same folk who made it the world's center of terrorism and anti-American hate propaganda. But never mind -- Mobil oil is ecstatic about the curtsey to Teheran. Mr. Clinton will give the same rationalization for a deal with Iran as for selling missile technology to China: "Engagement" with China is better than isolating it. He knows the comparison is lividly false, of course. Americans who oppose his empowerment of China do not want to isolate it. They want engagement -- not as appeasers but free people trying to use American political and economic pressure to ease political shackles in China and Tibet, end forced abortions and religious persecution and release the five to seven million slave-labor prisoners. Usually without nuisance of trial, they work in factories built into the prisons, dual use with bars and prods, part of national budgeting. Mr. Clinton, the whole family, might have fun dropping in. nytimes.com