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

To: lazarre who wrote (16596)	6/28/1998 8:05:00 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

I NEVER said the Chinese were evil. It does appear however that there is a strong possibility that our President was bought and paid for. Clinton's foreign policy such as it is has been an unmitigated disaster. Bosnia, Kosovo, India, Pakistan, China and Israel being just a few examples. JLA

To: lazarre who wrote (16596)	6/28/1998 8:07:00 PM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 20981

PS. I don't feel silly in the least. I should think that little play should have been obvious even to you beautiful people. JLA

To: lazarre who wrote (16596)	6/28/1998 10:15:00 PM
From: Catfish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20981

Clinton Meets His Match In China TV Joust London Times 6-29-98 Bronwen Maddox PRESIDENT CLINTON will make a further controversial speech on human rights this morning at Beijing University as the White House cautiously congratulates itself on navigating the weekend summit with President Jiang Zemin of China, the toughest hurdle in a diplomatically hazardous trip. Yesterday, to underline his message about religious freedom, Mr Clinton and his wife Hillary attended morning services at the Protestant Chongwenmen Church. During the last hymn, The Church's One Foundation, Mr Clinton was accosted by a Sichuan woman, Chen Anbi, who was aggressively manhandled away, declaring "China is not fair". After the scuffle, Mike McCurry, the White House spokesman, said he believed she just wanted to speak to Mr Clinton. "If someone not entirely steady walked up to the President in the Methodist Church in Washington DC, she may have been treated more gently, but there could have been a similar episode." Mrs Chen was later able to meet the President briefly. She told him she appreciated his visit and his emphasising the need for religious expression. The incident, one of several during the trip where the anxiety of Chinese security forces to keep order has surfaced in front of American television cameras, reflects the White House's awkwardness in handling the human rights issue. In the wake of Mr Clinton's forthright remarks about personal liberty in Saturday's startling joint press conference with Mr Jiang, the White House hopes that the US President has silenced many opponents back home. But critics argue that Mr Clinton came off worst in the verbal jousting match, beaten at his own game of charm; he was made to look well-meaning but naive, they say, and is likely to emerge from the nine-day visit with few tangible results. In the eyes of the White House, one of the greatest triumphs of the weekend was the Chinese Government's decision to broadcast Saturday's 90-minute press conference in the Great Hall of the People live across the nation on television and radio. Viewers saw Mr Clinton - who referred explicitly to the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre - criticise China's human rights record and urge acceptance of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader. However, the Chinese Government did not confirm that transmission had gone ahead until after the press conference. In launching his passionate defence of American values, President Clinton did not know if he was addressing 300 people or 1.2 billion. CCTV state television, which got the go-ahead minutes before the conference, interrupted normal programming without warning. According to the White House, the initial transmission ran unedited; there are reports of taxi drivers pulling out of the traffic to listen. But Chinese viewers say that later editions, and all press accounts, were heavily abbreviated. The Administration also professes itself delighted with the "chemistry" between the two men. At the formal state banquet on Saturday night, they took turns to conduct the band of the People's Liberation Army, Mr Clinton urging his counterpart: "You can do it! Go for it!" Cabinet members have thrown themselves with equal enthusiasm into the trip. Erskine Bowles, the Chief of Staff, has bought a full-size replica terracotta warrior for $1,100 (œ680). Yesterday in Beijing, William Daley, the Commerce Secretary, opened the 10,000th branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken - the 260th in China. But the White House was less pleased by Mr Jiang's unilateral decision on Saturday to mention the campaign-funding scandals that have dogged Mr Clinton, although he pronounced stories of Chinese contributions "very absurd and ridiculous - sheer fabrications". Mr Clinton's exhortation for Mr Jiang to meet the Dalai Lama because "I believe ... they would like each other very much" has been seen as boyishly gushing. The results of the summit are also slighter than the Administration hoped for some months ago. By far the most important is the unequivocal Chinese promise not to devalue the currency. The White House is also pleased with new agreements on chemical weapons, progress on biological arms controls, and China's new enthusiasm for the Missile Technology Control Regime. But the future of Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a renegade province, has largely been sidestepped. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: lazarre who wrote (16596)	6/29/1998 4:22:00 PM
From: Catfish	Respond to of 20981

For the Military, Less Means Less Investor's Business Daily 11 June 1998 Editorial Today's military is certainly leaner. Is it better?. Top pentagon brass think so. But more tech-laden forces can't overcome mission drift that starts in Washington. The American military may not be combat-ready. Wednesday's National Issue by IBD's Brian Mitchell shows all is not well at the Pentagon. The problems have little to do with strategy or tactics. The question facing leaders now is basic military readiness. As Mitchell reported, Army and Navy units lack support staff and officers. Air Force and Navy pilots are leaving in droves. Crucial parts have grown scarce. Standards and morale are falling. America spends about $110 billion less on defense today in real terms than a decade ago. Troop strength is down from 2.1 million in `88 to 1.8 million today. The Army alone has lost one-third of its uniformed personnel over the last 10 years. And new measures will trim 6 of its 10 divisions by another 13%. The pentagon's quadrennial defense review last year found that the U.S. couldn't mount an operation on the par with Desert Storm today, let alone a two-front war. To say history is repeating itself is an understatement. After every major conflict in this century, the military has been downsized- often without rhyme or reason -because it doesn't have much of a political base in times of peace. But when the next conflict hits, the military is not ready. Victory in WW1 convinced most in congress and the War Department that the Army and Navy could be partially mothballed. But Germany and Japan had other ideas. So the U.S. was forced to ramp up military production and enlistment- haphazardly, some say -to meet the threat. After the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam, troops were allowed to leave, equipment was not replaced and the U.S. readiness suffered. The disastrous rescue attempt of American hostages ion Iran brought the military's woes into sharp focus- so much so that even the media, who had been no friend of the military during Vietnam started calling it a "hollow army". Now the cold war is over and the top brass say the military must change as a result. Pentagon strategists say they're making America's military a leaner, more rapidly deployable force. That one way of looking at it. But the evidence says that Clinton's shrinking military can't do what it's being asked to. From peace-keeping missions around the globe and interdicting drugs to saving the rain forest homogenizing the genders, the U.S. military has seen its war-fighting mission blurred into a mishmash of politically expedient tasks. Yes, the world has changed. But in some ways it's more dangerous today that it was at the height of the cold war. Conflicts rage in Central Europe and Africa. Tensions are rising in the Mideast and South Asia. China is modernizing its conventional and nuclear weapons arsenal and boasts a three million man army- the largest in the world. Despite these threats, we are gutting the Pentagon to the point where we can't fight and win. That a disaster waiting to happen. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------