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Politics : Clinton's Scandals: Is this corruption the worst ever? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Aaron Cooperband who wrote (8636)	10/21/1998 9:24:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13994

Clinton exposed: October 21, 1998 The Photo-Op Foreign Policy President Clinton has made serious sacrifices to devote his full time to the latest Middle East "peace" talks that have droned on for six days at eastern Maryland's Wye Plantation. He had to give up a trip to California to raise funds for Barbara Boxer's sagging Senate campaign. And he had to forgo whatever else he does besides raising funds to spend long hours at Wye, trying to cajole Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and the PLO's Yasser Arafat into coming up with an agreement--any kind of agreement--that would allow the President to call the meeting a success. As we went to press, the talks continued. If you wonder why all this attention to negotiations that whatever their outcome are unlikely to result in anything that could be seriously described as "peace," the answer is fairly simple. The President is threatened with a debacle for Democrats in November's Congressional elections that could heighten the possibility of his impeachment by the new Congress. He needs a foreign policy success, or more to the point, something that looks like a success. He has been calling in all his chits, even prevailing on an ailing King Hussein to take part at Wye, in the hope of pulling off something that might resemble what Jimmy Carter achieved at Camp David nearly two decades ago. We have come to call this "photo-op diplomacy" because in the Clinton era the focus in foreign policy has been more on form than substance. The President will do almost anything to get the press cameras lined up in the Rose Garden for pictures of him bringing two bitter adversaries together. Or, better still, nightly news footage of B-52s winging to some trouble spot to project Presidential power. The only problem with this kind of diplomacy is that it hasn't worked. Politicians routinely include showmanship in their bags of tricks, but international politics is not show business. When a Slobodan Milosevic or a Saddam Hussein merely laugh at an American President's posturing on the world stage, there are real consequences. The most recent awful consequence was the wholesale destruction of lives and property in Serbia's Kosovo province by the police and troops of the incorrigible Milosevic. It took place while Mr. Clinton and his Secretary of State threatened and spluttered. When most of the Kosovo rape was completed, Mr. Clinton sent in Richard Holbrooke to threaten Slobo with NATO air strikes, but the air strikes were postponed for 10 days last week. That may be because they were never anything other than a threat. Or perhaps someone in the chain of command with actual military experience realized that the rules of engagement written by the White House--no collateral damage to non-military targets and no civilian casualties--would have been impossible to fulfill. But the President did get his photo-op announcing the intent to bomb. Before that, just as the Starr report was revealing the nasty details of the Oval Office sex shop, there were what are now appropriately called the "Wag the Dog" cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan. For some $70 million in cruise missiles, Mr. Clinton wiped out some terrorist training shacks near Kabul and a factory in Khartoum suspected of making a nerve gas component. That's not much to show for a military operation--one, by the way, carried out apparently without consulting America's service chiefs. There remain doubts that the Sudan plant was in fact implicated in nerve gas. But it was a distraction from the sordid Monica affair. Extemporaneous foreign policy gambits with no clear aim or follow-up do serious damage to American political authority. Mr. Clinton thought he had a deal to get North Korea out of the nuclear weapons business only to learn that he may have been tricked when a large and suspicious underground facility was discovered, in full operation, by satellite surveillance this year. He spent vast amounts to deploy carriers in the Persian Gulf to threaten Saddam Hussein, but after they were withdrawn, Saddam kicked out the U.N. weapons inspectors. A foreign policy has to be organized and sustained. If threats are made they should be carried out if the opponent doesn't yield. Photo-ops may play at home for a time, but people are beginning to notice that Mr. Clinton is turning American foreign policy into a weak reed. That is why the Wye affair is so important to the President. But while it may seem that he is holding the Israelis and the PLO captive, in a more real sense they are holding him captive. They not only understand the politics of their constituencies back home, who do not yield easily to persuasion, but they also understand Mr. Clinton's politics. They know that they would be foolish to trust him to enforce an agreement, once the ceremonies are over. Photo-op diplomacy lacks an important ingredient, credibility. interactive.wsj.com

To: Aaron Cooperband who wrote (8636)	10/21/1998 9:28:00 AM
From: greenspirit	Respond to of 13994

Aaron, Here are the terms on the Navy/Army bulletin board. I won't be posting here anymore. Bye all, it's been fun. Michael ______________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Military Matters Forum. Here you will find a network of bulletin boards where you can post questions, express your opinions, find old friends or make new ones. These boards are not edited for content. They are, however, subject to the following Terms of Service: BULLETIN BOARDS, FORUMS, DISCUSSION GROUPS AND CHAT ROOMS This service may include bulletin boards, forums, discussion groups and/or chat rooms ("bulletin boards") which allow feedback to ATPCo and real-time interaction between users. ATPCo does not control the messages, information or files delivered to bulletin boards. It is a condition of your use of the bulletin boards and this site that you do not: Restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the bulletin boards. Post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law. Post or transmit any information, software or other material which violates or infringes upon the rights of others, including material which is an invasion of privacy or publicity rights or which is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, or derivative works with respect thereto, without first obtaining permission from the owner or right holder. Post or transmit any information, software or other material which contains a virus or other harmful component. Post, transmit or in any way exploit any information, software or other material for commercial purposes, or which contains advertising. You understand that ATPCo has no obligation to monitor the bulletin boards. However, ATPCo reserves the right at all times to disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or governmental request, or to refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in ATPCo's sole discretion are objectionable or in violation of these terms and conditions. Neff Hudson General Manager New Media Division Army Times Publishing Co.