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- From: Blythe Systems <nytransfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
- Subject: NEWS:Clinton Wins Suppt from RightWing Biz
- Message-ID: <1992Aug25.215539.14491@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
- Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 21:55:39 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 118
-
-
- Via The NY Transfer News Service ^ All the News that Doesn't Fit
-
-
- Clinton Wins Applause from Rightist Business Heads
-
- By Andy Stapp
-
- Bill Clinton will not be afraid to march the country off to war
- any time, any place. He will "defy and defeat those who would
- threaten us." That's the gist of his Aug. 13 address to 2,000
- business leaders at a World Affairs Council meeting in Los
- Angeles.
-
- The speech was a real spellbinder -- if you enjoy arrogant bullies.
- It even had "humor" aimed at the misguided people hoping for a
- peace dividend. Or as Clinton so cleverly depicted them, "those
- who see defense cuts as largely a piggy bank to fund domestic
- wish lists." Like child care, apartments for the homeless, good
- public schools, a comprehensive health plan, full employment and
- other stuff almost everyone wants.
-
- Leapfrogging over Bush to capture the turf of the political right
- wing, Clinton virtually accused his Republican rival of going
- mushy on communism. Bush wasn't aggressive enough in pulling the
- Ukraine and Baltics away from the USSR. Bush supported Gorbachev
- over Boris Yeltsin. Bush sympathizes with Chinese Reds. Bush
- actually "coddled Iraq." Bush "gave short shrift" to separatists
- "in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia."
-
- Clinton's approach to Yugoslavia? "I would begin with air power
- to restore the basic conditions of humanity." Nothing like a
- little basic humanitarian bombing. And oh yes, Cuba. In Clinton's
- eyes, Bush is too weak there also. Said Clinton, "I think the
- Bush administration has missed a big opportunity to put the
- hammer down on Fidel Castro." George Bush restrained about
- hammering Cuba? Is Clinton on the same planet as everyone else?
-
- Show Clinton any billion-dollar weapons system and it's love at
- first sight. He used his talk to champion the cause of the V-22
- Osprey, even though the Pentagon itself has soured on the thing.
- The Osprey, which is supposed to take off like a helicopter and
- fly like a plane, keeps crashing. In military jargon it
- "experiences an involuntary conversion."
-
- On July 20, an Osprey abruptly "converted" over the Potomac
- River, killing all seven people aboard. Despite this plane's
- difficulty staying aloft, Clinton couldn't pass up a chance to
- promote it, along with the ultra-expensive C-17 aircraft and the
- Seawolf submarine. General Dynamics' Seawolf was designed to
- "stalk" Soviet subs, a somewhat thin mission these days.
-
- The Democratic candidate sees trouble looming in Moscow. Should
- Yeltsin's government collapse, Clinton anticipates "the risk of
- new threats from the former Soviet republics." That might
- "require the use of force."
-
- Enemies abound everywhere. Another potential menace emanates from
- Latin America, especially in Peru. Bill Clinton is prepared to
- face this peril as well. He pointed out that he once dispatched
- the Arkansas National Guard down to the Honduran-Nicaraguan
- border to challenge the Sandinistas.
-
- Turning toward the Far East, Clinton pressed for a Radio Free
- Asia, which would beam counter-revolutionary broadcasts 24 hours
- a day into China, Laos, Vietnam and People's Korea. He pledged to
- maintain U.S. military bases "in both Europe and Asia."
-
- Repression at home, war abroad
-
- In an obvious reference to the recent Los Angeles uprising,
- Clinton reassured the crowd of well-heeled whites that he would
- strengthen the National Guard and Army Reserve. Warming to his
- subject, the governor reminded them that both world wars were
- fought under the command of Democratic presidents who rose to the
- White House from governorships.
-
- He didn't mention that on the eve of the U.S. entry into World
- War I, Woodrow Wilson's re-election slogan was "He kept us out of
- war." Candidate Clinton evidently admires that kind of hypocrisy.
-
- He continued: "We still need a resolute leader who will wield
- America's might. Every president in the last half-century has had
- to confront the fateful decision to send Americans into combat. I
- do not relish the prospect, but neither do I shrink from it."
-
- Two decades ago, Clinton certainly didn't relish the prospect of
- getting his tail blown off in Vietnam. Few should blame him for
- that. Knowing the war to be unjust, many avoided conscription if
- they could. You can be sure that Clinton's plan to escape
- induction was one "fateful decision" he made rather easily.
-
- Back in 1969 it was, "Colonel, thank you for saving me from the
- draft." Not, "Dear President Nixon, thank you for letting me get
- shot at in this swamp." But now Clinton is older and wiser. Any
- reminder of long-gone youthful idealism is simply an
- embarrassment. Today this "resolute" man boasts that he wouldn't
- "shrink" from ordering younger folks to fight and die in some
- distant land.
-
- By its very nature, all big-money politics is dirty and
- shameless. Even so, given his own well-known opportunism,
- Clinton's pitch was more than a little repulsive. His affluent
- and comfortable audience, however, seemed absolutely delighted.
- James Solloway, the chief executive officer of a market research
- firm, remarked: "I can live with him as president. And that
- surprises me because I'm to the right of Marie Antoinette."
-
- -30-
-
- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
- if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
- St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@igc.apc.org".)
-
- -----
- NY Transfer News Service
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