Capitol Ideas/A New World Struggling to Be Born
Bethell, Tom
press conference on the savings and loan mess. There was a Washington Post story analyzing the Rev. Jackson's complaints that "news media are ignoring his activities." And there was a brief news...
...Because of oil, we are told...
...Amiability worked, it now seems...
...In the opinion of the more hawkish element among conservatives, such a war can be easily and swiftly won, so great is our technological advantage and so superior the training of our military...
...Why can't we just stay home...
...Warning to American conservatives: they won't feel any such gratitude—even if we display cultural sensitivity and leave two or three of their more highly valued mosques unscathed...
...Natural wrapper...
...For that reason, it may well be possible for us to carry out the "surgical strikes" pressed by the military...
...The paper has long been an admirer of the carrot, but has lately emerged as even more respectful of the stick...
...But Mubarak is in power courtesy of the Egyptian army...
...Hence, I believe, the rise of Islam—a religion that appeals to people with little to lose...
...Obviously, he had to be stopped at all costs—before he spread his fanaticism through the region...
...Reliable reports filtered back to Washington that he opposed the separation of church and state—possibly had not even heard of the idea, or of Thomas Jefferson either...
...As for Syria, Assad has already been adopted as our latest ally and regional counterweight, and was swiftly awarded "non-megalomaniac"status by Anthony Lewis of the New York Times...
...Jackson's advancement...
...This may well be true...
...But if the U.S., now unrestrained by the Soviets, charges ahead in pursuit of this U.N...
...residents add 6% sales tax) ^ Charge $10.90 to my ^ VISA ^ MasterCard PLEASE PRINT Credit Card No...
...in an attempt to collect $14,586.36—the unpaid remnant of a $22,317.73 bill rung up by the Rev...
...The perennial U.S...
...Perhaps, in time-honored fashion, Saddam Hussein will be deposed by his own junior officers...
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...A look at my earlier columns shows that I have been wrong in the past, e.g., criticizing an excessively amiable President Reagan for signing pointless arms control agreements, thereby signaling "weakness" to Gorbachev...
...All over the world, in the vast majority of countries, the citizenry is oppressed by predatory government, which is everywhere staffed to the bursting point by the educated classes...
...Unfortunately, having been earlier derided for lacking it, the President got vision with a vengeance...
...What is less clear is the way things will look on the day after the bombing raids...
...Perhaps he will cite it as evidence of how he, a man of the people, is exploited by fat cat limousine operators...
...Is it not curious how frequently America's enemies are instrumental in the Rev...
...He was certainly planning to sell the oil that we are now preventing from reaching the market...
...To what extent the "Arab street" would rejoice at the bombing of Baghdad is another matter, of course...
...And now we have made ourselves a new friend in the region, Hafez Assad...
...He settled for $125,000...
...But, as I say, war does look likely, so maybe we will have a chance to see who's right here...
...The touted oil wealth has done little more than create welfare and enrich an indolent ruling elite who hire outsiders to do the real work...
...He is a media marvel: a preacher with no church or congregation, a political leader who has held no office, and now he is ajournalist, though he has no reportorial skills, no literary skills—no qualifications whatsoever to be considered a journalist...
...Jackson can transform that last item into good ink...
...YOU DON'T NEED CASTRO'S PERMISSION TO ENJOY THE UNIQUE HAVANA FLAVOR...
...Having identified three "culturally very important" sites in Iraq—possibly religious centers— that American bombers would avoid, Dugan added: "We're not mad at the Iraqi people, and when this is all over we don't want the Iraqi people to be mad at us and the rest of the allies we've brought together...
...But the next day brought the following apergu: "If we take Baghdad and install a MacArthur regency, that is the optimum...
...But the ink was hardly dry on the Journal's comment about Iran's Rafsanjani when the scoundrel seemed to be pressing for rapprochement—with Iraq...
...On this topic, I have more confidence in the analyses of David Henderson (also writing in the Wall Street Journal), and the columnists Warren Brookes and Doug Bandow, who point out that Hussein posed little threat to the oil supply...
...The usual foot-dragging has been detected on the other side of the Atlantic, where "messy things like wars are beneath the dignity of Europeans...
...Socialism has been tried and found impoverishing...
...By all accounts, Gen...
...I have more confidence in the vision of America that President Reagan liked to use, the "shining city on a hill": America should influence the world by example, not by force...
...Who knows, maybe time will prove them right...
...Perhaps the Rev...
...Without the institutions that make THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1990 13...
...Secretary of State Baker strikes me as an empty figure, one week strutting about from one international conference to another, the next lying low as his policies come under scrutiny...
...They have found out that it's possible to live very comfortably off the labor of their fellow men by invoking the rhetoric of either compassion or external threat...
...He has worked other such miracles in the media...
...If the phrase refers merely to heads of state, then Perle probably has a point...
...Best cigars I have had since returning from overseas," wrote H.E.O., of Columbia, SC...
...is being sued in Washington, D.C...
...Letterman would be welcome in Baghdad...
...H ow can we have any confidence in politicians and policies that veer so erratically, shifting from alliance to enmity as unpredictably as children choosing sides in a school-yard...
...Lest we had forgotten about our "shared responsibilities," Maggie Thatcher came across the Atlantic to remind the President...
...How can one have any confidence in a foreign policy bedeviled by such incurable activism...
...Yours is the only decent cigar I have had in over 12 years," one new customer wrote me the other day...
...Clearly he believed every word of it: "A new world that is struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one that we've known," and so on...
...Dugan was fired for candor, not for making up his own policy...
...T mentioned...
...The U.N...
...Perhaps it all depends on how you define the Arab world...
...These superb smokes are made with expertly blended Cuban-seed-leaf tobaccos grown and cured the old Cuban way in Honduras from seed smuggled out of Cuba...
...If these cigars aren't all you expected, return the unsmoked ones by United Parcel or Parcel Post within 30 days and I'll refund your money...
...Suddenly, there was this very important cause we were expected to go to war for: Regional Stability...
...Carson or Mr...
...How by Tom Bethell is such a grandiose goal to be achieved...
...Tom Bethel...
...The flickering career of the Rev...
...Who you know is far more important than what you know...
...And Hafez el Assad of Syria will be grateful if we finish off his enemy and rival...
...attack on Iraq "would forever alienate the Arab world...
...Can't we...
...You won't be able to either, when you try them...
...I cut my ideological teeth on Wall Street Journal editorials, but I have to dissent from these hawkish views...
...CAPITOL IDEAS A NEW WORLD STRUGGLING TO BE BORN s I write, the probability of war in the Middle East looks very high...
...Dept...
...Are Americans naive or what...
...Don't ask...
...How will he look next year...
...After the removal of Hussein, steps should be taken to ensure that "there are no further crises of this type in the Persian Gulf...
...This is liberal internationalism run amok...
...Jackson in the summer of 1989 when he used a limousine almost daily in pursuit of some arcane goal of his humanitarian hooey...
...Only minor ones...
...How will the Egyptian people feel about bombing raids in Iraq...
...military action against Iraq: "The cutting edge would be in downtown Baghdad," and so on...
...He used comfortable socialist rhetoric and dressed in secular attire: our friend the Ayatollah-stopper...
...In consequence, they feel a rising sense of grievance and despair...
...The Kuwait regime was, it's true, one of the less oppressive...
...is The American Spectator 's Washington correspondent...
...Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute, formerly an assistant secretary of defense, argues against those who worry that a U.S...
...One is not supposed to say this, but since the end of the colonial period, during which the Middle East benefited, if inadvertently, from Western institutions, there has been a vast, unacknowledged material decline in the Arab world, in comparison to the West...
...For decades, almost all of them have been under the thumb of one or another tyrant...
...Well, then, maybe Johnny Carson and David Letterman should shove off for Baghdad and broadcast all the happythoughts of the amusing Mr...
...Comment in recent weeks really has been tinged with the suggestion that the Arab world will, on the whole, be grateful to the "international community" (that's us, folks) for punishing the aggressor, restoring the legitimate emir, and upholding the Wilsonian principles of stability, order, and the sanctity of national borders...
...Only I doubt that Mr...
...should be perceived as a gang of governments (whose representatives live comfortable tax-free lives in New York) which has pledged to come to the rescue of beleaguered governments...
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...Our vital interest, wrote the hawkish Karen Elliott House, is "the free flow of oil at tolerable prices...
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...He has fraternized with America's enemies abroad...
...He has uttered ethnic slurs that would send a lesser performer into lifetime retirement...
...Outstanding...
...No doubt Assad will be treated as deferentially by the State Department as was Saddam Hussein until the day before he invaded Kuwait...
...as rather more intrusive and threatening to its interests than Saddam Hussein ever was...
...But most Arabs have been at the mercy of their own tyrants and cannot be blamed for their own subjugation...
...We do enjoy the support of a number of Arab rulers, some of them no less ruthless than Saddam Hussein himself...
...Any snags...
...Which can be arranged: "Long after our troops come home, and we all hope it's soon," President Bush told Congress in September, "there will be a lasting role for the United States in assisting the nations of the Persian Gulf . . . " The newspaper seemed to be having second thoughts when it later suggested: "Iraq could be put under the suzerainty of an Arab leader the West and Iraqis trust...
...And there was a brief news service report that the Rev's Rainbow Coalition Inc...
...Without the press and without America's enemies, Jesse Jackson might have dropped from view long ago...
...To be sure, this will require "a permanent force of some power in the region...
...Your delivered cost is only $10.90 for 42 factory-fresh, Cubanseed-leaf cigars...
...Nor do they feel inferior to the porn-and drug-infested West...
...He is going to begin a talk show in the fall and that, he says, makes him a journalist...
...How will they feel if we bomb Baghdad...
...Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, having thrown in his lot with the Western powers, will, at least for a short time, feel reassured that he joined the winning side...
...Experts can't tell them from Havanas...
...Of particular interest was the following comment, reported by the Washington Post...
...A decade ago we discovered, no doubtwith an abundance of CIA reports and satellite photography, that there was this terrifying fundamentalist in Iran, a kind of Persian Jerry Falwell, the Ayatollah Khomeini...
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...N owhere is the oppressive hand of predatory government more keenly felt than in the countries of the Arab world...
...Of all the cigars I have smoked, both cheap and expensive, yours is the best of the bunch," wrote another...
...George Bush's great good fortune," the thoughtful neoconservative columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote four months ago, "is that he is a man utterly incapable of vision at a time when people do not want vision and do not need it...
...What is needed in many of these countries is not stability but revolution...
...vision...
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...Foreign policy seems to be based on an inordinate attachment to the old European idea of the balance of power...
...If you're ready for a luxuriously enjoyable smoking experience, try them now...
...But at this juncture it is difficult to visualize either side climbing down...
...The serene confidence of some conservatives has been nowhere more strikingly on display than in a series of Wall Street Journal editorials in August...
...I am very impressed with the mildness and freshness of the sampler you sent," said J.J.M., of Lincoln, IL...
...On the plus side, though, Syria "will want to reconsider its position" as the player of hostage games, and Iran's Rafsanjani "will have a new reason to press for a rapprochement with the West...
...A week later Hussein invaded Kuwait and became, almost overnight a megalomaniac Kurd-gassing oil-reserve-controlling Baghdad-bullying media-manipulating chemical-weaponhoarding nuclear-weapon-seeking . . . monster...
...Right now we have to "isolate" the Butcher of Baghdad...
...goal of "international stability"—which is to say, U.S...
...I'll send them to you from Tampa, the fine cigar capital of the world...
...We have many Americans who would like to see the price go above $25 because they come from oil-producing states...
...Following a "short and decisive conquest of Iraq," the newspaper says, there would be a need for the permanent reform of Iraq's government, with the installation of "a new, moderate leadership" there...
...search for "stability" abroad resembles nothing so much as an out-of-control 18-wheeler roaring down the highway, slamming into hapless motorists and careening off first one guard rail and then the other...
...If by victory we mean simply the destruction of Iraq's military machine and its nuclear and chemical plants, victory can probably be easily achieved...
...He has shaken down American businessmen for his various campaigns...
...If the press really has tired of him he may do so soon, and we shall have the opportunity to savor the fall of the national charlatan...
...Jackson will now get a boost from another of America's enemies...
...His New World Order speech was dismaying precisely because it was enunciated with such gusto...
...It turned out to be a U.N...
...one or two of them would love to see their rival Hussein destroyed...
...What if we do go to war with Iraq...
...Sure, King Fand of Saudi Arabia will heave a sigh of relief...
...My own suspicion is that the festivities in Damascus and Cairo would last for no more than a few hours before the Arab world began to see the U.S...
...Date name street city state zip L_ OFFER GOOD IN U.S ONLY CREDIT CARD USERS TOLL-FREE 1-800-237-2559 SPEED DELIVERY BY CALLING IN FLORIDA, CALL 1-800-282-0646 12 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1990 Well, we are told, we can't just give up on the "international responsibilities" that Mrs...
...U.S...
...I'll include a generous sampling of vintage-leaf, long-filler and cut filler cigars, all perfectly blended for mildness and flavor...
...This is called "international stability...
...No questions asked...
...There will be great hatred of the West, and of the U.S...
...Before heading off to interview Sad-dam Hussein he attempted to shake down news organizations for as much as half a million dollars to support this nonsensical foray into journalism...
...He had his faults, but at least he wasn't a fundamentalist...
...in particular...
...Check for $10.90 enclosed (Fla...
...As late as July 27 the administration was pressuring Congress not to oppose a $500 million food-aid package for Iraq, cautioning resisters that it would be a mistake to "micromanage" foreign policy...
...Governments do tend to be beleaguered, because the great problem with the world today, as throughout most of this century, is leviathan government...
...A little rebellion now and then is a good thing," as Thomas Jefferson said.the West productive—the rule of law, the freedom of contract, relatively secure private property rights—anything more than family-sized industry is difficult to achieve in the Arab world...
...They're mild, flavorful and extremely satisfying to the cigar smoker who's looking for something new, something better, something exceptionally tasty...
...Ambassador April Glaspie dropped in for deferential visits: "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait...
...Hussein...
...To the contrary, he wrote recently, the Arab world is "far more likely to despise us for failing to destroy Saddam Hussein's military power...
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...Aid, subsidies, technological assistance, and Export-Import Bank credits flowed to our new regional counterweight, Sad-dam Hussein, who was granted "non-fanatic" status...
...Frightening...
...n September 17, the Air Force chief of staff, General Michael J. Dugan, was fired for speaking out on the record about the probable course of U.S...
...MY OFFER TO CIGAR LOVERS I'll send you postpaid a selection of 42 factory-fresh cigars-vintage-leaf long-filler and cut-filler smokes...
...Will they rejoice because we taught the aggressor Hussein a lesson and restored the "legitimate government of Kuwait...
...Maybe, by the time you read this, Iraq will have been pacified, the new MacArthur will be on his way to the smoldering ruins of Baghdad, and Iranians will be down on their knees, not worshipping Allah but quaking beTHE AMERICAN SPECTATOR NOVEMBER 1990 11 fore the newly resolute Americans...
...taxpayers coming to the rescue of beleaguered foreign governments—it will be a disaster...
Vol. 23 • November 1990 • No. 11
