Correspondence
Correspondence Into Bosnia Concerning your position on Bosnia (editorials of Dec. 4 and Dec. 11): No, no, a thousand times no! Opposition to the cavalier use of our resources is not only...
...This position is consistent with my belief that the president, even absent congressional authorization, has the power as commander in chief to deploy troops (as President Bush did in 1990) and to take other military actions...
...Dollar bills in my wallet bear the legend "Federal Reserve Note...
...The fact that the Treasury does not issue paper money is a red herring: The president appoints all the governors of the Federal Reserve Board...
...Any opposition to the insertion of 20,000 American troops in that wretched region is characterized as "strident, even cavalier...
...today's debate is about the implementation of peace...
...troops on the ground poised for attack in the Gulf before Congress even voted...
...Significant U.S...
...I never said they weren't...
...While many investors may not care whether the payment is made a day or a week late, many other purchasers of U.S...
...You should have heard the screaming fits the Powell supporters threw when he opted not to run...
...Congress should vote whenever U.S...
...Phil Lollar Glendora, CA If the Republican Revolution needs a few coffee houses and bars for intellectual discussions, I would like to invite you to the Blarney Stone Pub in Fort Worth, Texas...
...And that issue should turn on whether a credit rating is supposed to mean that a bondholder is entitled to a real return of principal and interest or just to a nominal (i.e., perhaps inflation-reduced) return...
...In Bosnia today-as in Haiti in 1994, Somalia in 1993, and the Persian Gulf in 1991-I favor congressional authorization...
...I suspect that Rubin has no statutory authority to go to the basement of the Treasury and print up a big stack of $1,000,000 "United States Notes" (a denomination that has never existed) to make timely payment on billions of dollars of United States Treasury obligations on a particular day...
...There were 500,000 U.S...
...The think-tank commandos in the salons of Georgetown will not be the ones freezing at round-the-clock roadside checkpoints, trying not to be the latest casualty in a blood feud as old as the millennium, wondering whether that oncoming truck is being driven by a jihad-ist hell-bent on Paradise...
...It is simply wrong...
...Yet this is precisely the same strategy that many in the GOP are engaging in now...
...The ability to print money does not affect this risk for timely payment...
...Matthew Feely Philadelphia, PA Matthew Rees claims inconsistency in my approaches to the Gulf war debate and the current Bosnia debate ("Hypocrite, Thy Name Is . . . ," Dec...
...The internationalist buffet you offer fails to address the lack of a vital U.S...
...Come on down and I'll buy a pint of Guinness for each of your staff...
...This was not shared responsibility...
...Treasury securities rely on timely payment...
...But they didn't...
...Many Republicans justly criticize Democrats for using scare tactics as their only defense against painful policy decisions (e.g., Medicare...
...Had Standard & Poor's issued a downgrade in the 1970s, their pronouncement this year might have had some validity...
...27), count me in...
...27) criticizes Standard & Poor's for announcing that the budget deadlock caused "diminished" faith in the credit of the U.S...
...Scott E. Butler Topsfield, MA James Higgins responds : The broadest issue here is whether a credit rating means anything for debt a sovereign borrower issues in its own currency...
...He understands that we cannot maintain credibility in our existing security arrangements with Europe while doing nothing to help stop the ethnic cleansing raging in her midst...
...Finally, let me point out several key differences in the Gulf and Bosnia situations...
...national security threat and the carelessness of negotiations that put our credibility on the line...
...You clinched it for me with the comment: "When the 'conservative street' is wrong, it should be corrected-or ignored...
...If anyone is being cavalier here, it is those who claim, as you do, that the U.S...
...I opposed two previous House measures (October 30 and November 17) that risked undermining the peace negotiations in Dayton (November 1-21...
...So while Mr...
...It's a great Irish bar in the heart of downtown...
...The Standard & Poor's credit rating measures the ability and willingness of the borrower to make timely payments of interest and principal in accordance with the terms of the obligation...
...Concerning Bosnia, Congress should vote-preferably in the form of an authorization...
...government...
...F. M. Kellam St...
...Leadership does not equal supporting or excusing presidential mistakes now, simply because we wish to preserve some image of American unity abroad...
...You should question how you are defending the Constitution by backing a "peacekeeping" mission in an area of marginal strategic interest...
...To allow the mission to proceed and fail, as it will, will do more to undermine our global credibility than drawing it up short before disaster is realized...
...While the juke box goes from the Pogues to Bob Marley to Texas honky tonk, TCU co-eds fight with one another to get the attention of the bartender...
...I'm one of your "intrepid souls...
...The silent scream of military families ("Surely someone is going to stop this madness") summons us to deeper reflection than, "But we've always done it this way...
...Louis, MO Iwas greatly relieved to see that the editors were able to transcend their partisan proclivities and support the president on his Bosnia decision...
...Robert K. Stock Weatherford, TX Woody Allen, Quipster As a retired New York University dean, I applaud John Podhoretz for remembering Woody Allen's line about being thrown out of NYU for cheating on a metaphysics exam: "I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me" ("Mighty Pretentious," Nov...
...government should have been downgraded years ago, when budget deficits became large enough to be major political issues...
...Standard & Poor's, therefore, is correct...
...Jeff Fedorchak Alexandria, VA With some misgivings (now confirmed), I decided recently to accept your six-week trial offer...
...Richard West Genoa, NV...
...With leadership comes responsibility- which is not to say that our limited mission should escalate into another futile attempt at nation-building The Weekly Standard is right to support the president on Bosnia, but must caution him and others on the dangers of "mission creep...
...I disagree...
...Conservative philosophy is alive and well at the Blarney Stone Pub...
...To follow this president in this action is neither correct nor courageous...
...The fact that only some sovereign credits are rated triple-A implies that Standard & Poor's believes bondholders are entitled to a real return, but that implication points straight to the question of why Standard & Poor's never threatened to downgrade U.S...
...In the far greater killing fields of Africa...
...This, many of us question-uncavalierly...
...And in keeping with our ideals, we might even charge a membership fee...
...The last straw was the endorsement of the allied occupation of the Balkans under the Arkansas chicken hawk...
...Only instead of the dank, inner recesses of New York, our bohemian culture should grow in the great petri dish of conservatism: suburbia...
...The November 17 bill denied funds to deploy U.S...
...I did so because the authorization was a blank check...
...Timely payments are important...
...so it doesn't...
...Stan Jones Oakdale, CA So eager are you to plant your "standard" in the killing fields of Bosnia, you have paraded a meretricious collection of arguments in support of your internationalist pretensions...
...Butler is correct that Secretary Rubin does not have a printing press in the basement, the administration ultimately does control monetary policy...
...Do we really need another black wall memorializing yet another failed foreign adventure...
...It was left to the president to decide when-even whether-to go to war...
...ground forces are not yet in Bosnia...
...Please cancel my subscription, and thanks for the look...
...Where else will this assistance be required...
...combat troops are put in dangerous situations...
...Go to Bosnia, protect presidential primacy in foreign policy, avoid embarrassment, and, for God's sake, man, protect the NATO-led European security arrangement...
...While some old currency bears the legend "United States Note," printing money today seems to require Federal Reserve involvement, and thus the acquiescence of human beings other than Secretary Rubin and his subordinates...
...Voelkner Alexandria, VA Ever the vanguard of establishment Republicanism, The Standard serves up another plate of Washington-think for our consumption...
...this was handing over all authority to the president...
...While the alternative to President Bush's policy in January 1991 was to give sanctions more time to work, the alternative to President Clinton's Bosnia policy is far more dangerous- to do nothing, and thereby risk resumption of the war and stability in Europe...
...You don't have to be an isolationist to believe that American power- and the lives of American soldiers- should be carefully husbanded in support of clearly defined American interests...
...As to my position on the Persian Gulf war, I opposed H.J...
...Rep...
...would be a niggardly superpower indeed" were it not "to help halt horrifying bloodshed in Europe...
...Letting Our Hair Down As to Michael Anton's call for a "Conservative Bohemia" (Nov...
...If the Bosnia deployment is wrong-and it is-Congress should do everything in its power to stop it...
...H.T...
...Leadership is recognizing what is correct and having the courage to stand on it...
...Bob Dole, fortunately, has not given in to this short-term political ploy...
...Furthermore, the U.S...
...Kids from Texas Christian University, blue-collar workers, lawyers, and judges mix freely, discussing the differences between conservatism and libertarianism, keeping or abolishing the Federal Reserve, the merits of the gold standard, whether Buchanan is a Republican or a populist, etc...
...Lee H. Hamilton Washington, DC Credit Where It's Due James Higgins ("Poor-Mouthing Uncle Sam," Nov...
...Opposition to the cavalier use of our resources is not only prudent-it's required...
...All I said was that it is hypocritical and partisan for Standard & Poor's to carp about liquidity now while sitting on their hands as Democrats eroded the financial soundness of the government for 40 years...
...Chechnya...
...Resolution 77, which authorized the president to use force to turn back Iraq's invasion of Kuwait...
...Neither of these was an authorization...
...His embrace of Clinton's position, though qualified, is an act of statesmanlike foresight...
...debt in times of high inflation...
...If we don't, what will our neighbors say...
...I got the message...
...The 1991 debate was about the question of war...
...forces, certainly an intrusion on the president's commander-in-chief powers...
...I remember that Woody also used another line about having to leave NYU because of cheating: "It was pretty bad-it was with the dean's wife...
Vol. 1 • December 1995 • No. 15
