Houston Chron

Thank You, Bill Clinton A Legacy to be Proud of by Derek Copold

"In reflecting upon our current international situation, I'd like to take the time to thank Bill Clinton. Bill may be living the good life, playing hero to his adulatory black fans by day, tomcatting in Manhattan by night, but it's us who gets to pay the bill, and I'm not just talking about his retirement pay. Remember, this is the time when we're supposed to be able to reap the fruits of his famous legacy.

Well, the first fruit has fallen from that tree, and it's a prolonged imprisonment for 24 American servicemen by the Red Chinese forces. Don't you feel lucky? I'm sure they do.

The reason I point to it as a part of Bill Clinton's legacy is that the situation is worse than it would normally be because, thanks to Bill, the nation now finds itself bereft of friends. The silence from the international community over this incident is truly deafening. With the exception of a few states, whose status can only be charitably described as bought and paid for with U.S. aid, no one really gives a damn that an American aircraft operating in international airspace was seized by another power. In fact, I daresay, many countries are secretly enjoying this spectacle.

The oddness of this situation is that China has so many natural enemies, but we can't turn to any of them for assistance because we've so offended them, that they now see us as their new enemy rather than the Chinese. Instead of the totalitarian Chinese being on the outside looking in, they're the ones looking out at us and laughing all the while with their newfound buddies. Thank you, Bill Clinton.

Russia is one of these unexpected Chinese pals. A land that has battled the Chinese for centuries over territory, Russia has been turned into an enemy by the Clinton administration's deceit in Kosovo and the outright bargain-breaking expansion of NATO into eastern Europe. Admittedly, the truculence of the Bush administration hasn't helped, but compared to the antics of Clinton and his pet harpy Madeline Albright, these past tête-à-tête's have been minor. At the beginning of the decade, Russian President Boris Yeltsin called the United States his country's "best friend." After eight years of Bill Clinton, this same person was ominously reminding the world, especially America, that Russia still had nuclear weapons. Thank you, Bill Clinton.

In other times, we could have turned to either India or Pakistan for diplomatic assistance, but India is incensed by our economic sanctions against them, which Bill Clinton imposed due to their having nuclear weapons, none of which will ever threaten our shores. On the other side of the Himalayas, our one-time Cold War ally Pakistan feels betrayed because Clinton mindlessly applied the same sanctions to them because they were threatened by the Indian nukes, so they went out and tested their own. What else would you do if your blood enemy starting detonating nukes next door? (Don't bother to figure out the American logic operating here; there isn't any.) Amazingly, we've managed to get India and Pakistan to agree on one thing: they both hate us. Thank you, Bill Clinton.

The Muslim world, which is seriously disturbed by China's suppression of the Muslim majority in Xianjang, won't go out of their way to help us either. We've used up any good will we built up with them during the Gulf War by continuing a pointless starvation regime against Iraq, of which our chief harpy said of the 500,000 who have resultantly died, "It's worth the price." In addition to this, our meddling in local politics, like supporting a military coup in Algeria, hasn't exactly filled the phone lines and telegram offices with 'thank you' calls from the Muslim world. Oh, and finally, using Sudanese aspirin factories and empty tents in Afghanistan as media distractions hasn't earned us any points either. Thank you, Bill Clinton.

Europe might be a more active friend, but they really have no reason to be. After eight years of being harangued and dragged through the Balkans on one adventure after the next by the Clinton administration, the French and the Germans are now looking to solidify their ties with the Russians, so as to weaken us. The British are ever eager to be helpful, but they've so subordinated themselves to our dictates under Tony Blair at Bill Clinton's insistence, that no one really gives a damn about what they think anymore, if indeed they are capable of thinking for themselves. Thank you, Bill Clinton.

So that's the score. Thanks to Bill Clinton's all towering ego combined with an unmatched degree of truculence, we're alone in the world. You just can't buy this kind of legacy, but you sure do have to pay for it. 24 military prisoners in Hainan are now making the first down payment on these bills Bill has run up. Let's hope they get a chance to thank him as well.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

Answers

Ouch! Unfortunately, also all too true....

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

In my opinion, this article flat out sucks. A few examples: Saddam Hussein has loads of money in a fund set up by the UN for oil sale money to be used for food and medicine. He refuses to use it until all sanctions are lifted. Starving Iraquis are his fault alone. And as far as "betraying" the Russians regarding Kosovo, that would simply have been winking at genocide, and with a displacement of people through terror which would have destabilized the whole area. And anyone who is sanguine about an Indo-Pakistani atomic conflict doesn't have the brains to hold down a job a toilet attendant.

-- Anonymous, April 04, 2001

-- Anonymous, April 05, 2001