orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) (12/02/85)
> > Having sold the Nicaraguan people down the river with its aid to > the Sandinistas, the US has an OBLIGATION to at least match that > with aid to the resistance. > > Jan Wasilewsky I fail to see how the US has any obligation to give money to a group which has killed over 10,000 Nicaraguans, bombed and burned cooperative farms, and is led by former members of Somoza's National Guard. If one is going to argue that we should be sending guns and money to Nicaraguan terrorists then should we not send guns and money to the African National Congress? Or those opposing Pinochet in Chile? Or those opposing the Guatemalan government which has massacred thousands of its own people? Personally, I see no point in supporting such violence *anywhere*. But I find it disgustingly hypocritical to impose an economic embargo besides sending money to terrorists in Nicaragua because it is "undemocratic" while refusing to impose an economic embargo on South Africa which has killed hundreds of its own people in the past year. The right-wing's hypocrisy in claiming to be "pro-democracy" when it supports violent terrorism around the world was nowhere more evident than in Wm F Buckley's recent column in which he bragged about the success of "stopping Salvador Allende's communism" by playing a part in Allende's brutal assassination and the military coup which slaughtered or imprisoned thousands of Chileans while bringing an end to decades of democracy in Chile. This is "support for democracy"?? This is blatant hypocrisy. I am also quite tired of right-wingers claiming that no liberals or progressives care about democracy in left-wing dictatorships. That is pure bunk. I oppose the recent suspension of civil liberties in Nicaragua as do most leftists. I do not know *anybody* who supports Soviet repression of civil liberties, or the Polish repression of Solidarity. In fact, Joan Baez gave a concert in a church in Gdansk for Solidarity last week attended by thousands of Solidarity sympathizers. In 1981 thousands of demonstrators gathered in Washington, D.C. to rally for Peace and Jobs in our country and in sympathy with the Solidarity movement in Poland. The sponsors were a coalition of progressive organizations. On the other hand, I am not about to support the mining of any nation's harbors, the slaughter of its citizens, or economic devastation as the means of promoting "democracy". (a "democracy" which will only wind up like the "democracy" of Pinochet in Chile: another brutal military dictatorship run for the elite with property) Much of the right-wing in fact doesn't give two cents for democracy as seen by their past actions in blacklisting innocent Americans, in arresting dissidents trying to begin labor unions, in Edwin Meese's recent comments that the protections of the Bill of Rights do not apply to the States. While I think Libertarians are myopic and blind to reality at least I give them credit for consistently supporting civil liberties. Most of the right wing such as Buckley, Falwell, Reagan, Kemp, et all don't give a damn about liberty, democracy or anything but the rights of the wealthy. Please excuse the tirade but the blatant hypocrisy of the right irks me. tim sevener whuxn!orb