My own view was that no
>>peacekeeping forces would have been necessary in this
>>Portuguese-administered terrority under effective UN jurisdiction if the US
>>had informed its friends among the INDON generals that the game is over.
>>That judgment was in fact confirmed in mid-September when Clinton finally
>>made some ambiguous gestures, and the generals turned tail within a few
>>hours -- something that could have been done for the previous 24 years.
I think Noam's case would be strenghtened if he outlined some plausible explanations for why the US state, a future moral leader in the field of labor and ecological standards, did not exert pressure earlier. I have heard Bill Clinton speak many times now on television, and he seems to me to be a honest and humane person who must have been horrified by the violence against poor and innocent people. I can hear Bill plaintively crying out to Wiranto "Stop the Violence" with samplings from "Feelings" thrown in to the mix.
Yours, Rakesh