Election Crisis and Electoral Reform

Nancy Bauer/Dennis Perrin bauerperrin at mindspring.com
Mon Nov 20 09:59:56 PST 2000


Kevin Quinn wrote:


>Please stop this nonsense: these children are dying because Hussein won't
>import the medicines they need. He can sell as much oil as he likes to
>import medicine and food--he simply refuses to do so, in great part so that
>he can call the US child murderers and be believed by people who aren't
>paying attention. There are lots of things to blame Clinton-Gore for; this
>isn't one of them.
>

Um, Kevin, perhaps you should read the below segment before spouting off on Iraq. Saddam is a monster, as I think we all agree; but your taking the Clinton/Gore line so uncritically is, how you say, "nonsense."

And if the Clinton administration is not to blame, then why did Albright say to Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes" that the high death toll among Iraqi children is "worth the price"?

DP


>From today's SF Bay Guardian Online, by Martin Lee (courtesy of Marta
Russell).


>
>But why . . . didn't the Democrats stomp and scream about
>Cheney's Iraq connection? The Gore campaign undoubtedly knew of
>Halliburton's smarmy business dealings from the get-go. Gore and Lieberman
>could have made hay about how the wannabe GOP veep had been in
>cahoots with
>Saddam. Such explosive revelations may well have swayed voters
>and boosted
>Gore's chances in what was shaping up to be a close electoral contest.
>
>The Democratic standard-bearers dropped the ball in part because
>Halliburton's conduct was generally in accordance with the
>foreign policy
>of the Clinton administration. Cheney is certainly not the only Washington
>mover and shaker to have been affiliated with a company trading
>in Iraq.
>Former CIA Director John Deutsch, who served in a Democratic
>administration, is a member of the board of directors of
>Schlumberger, the
>second-largest U.S. oil-services company, which also does
>business through
>subsidiaries in Iraq. Despite occasional rhetorical skirmishes, a
>bipartisan foreign-policy consensus prevails on Capital Hill,
>where the
>commitment to human rights, with a few notable exceptions, is
>about as deep
>as an oil slick.


>Today General Electric is among the companies that are back in business
>with Saddam Hussein, even as American jets and battleships attack
>Iraq on a
>weekly basis using weapons made by G.E. But the United Nations sanctions
>committee, dominated by U.S. officials, has routinely blocked
>medicines and
>other essential items from being delivered to Iraq through the oil-for-food
>program, claiming they have a potential military "dual use." These
>sanctions have taken a terrible toll on ordinary Iraqis, and on
>children in
>particular, while the likes of Halliburton and G.E. continue to lubricate
>their coffers.



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