|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
A Double Standard on Sanctions
| Article
# : |
15005 |
|
|
Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
|
| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1988 |
2,789 Words |
| Author
: |
Philip Nicolaides
Philip Nicolaides is director of the Foundation for Africa's
Future. |
When President Reagan spoke of the Soviet Union as "the focus of evil in the modern world" most liberals jeered at his "simplistic, Manichaean" views. Liberals know the real focus of evil is South Africa. Randall Robinson recently called it “the most vicious government on earth." Therefore, to touch it is to be tainted. To do business with it is to prop up a satanic regime. Such is the rationale for the all-out economic sanctions bill just passed by the House and being debated in the Senate.
While some supporters of this economic warfare call it a "peaceful alternative," Jesse Jackson has let the cat out of the bag. He wants us to go beyond sanctions and give military assistance to the African National Congress (ANC) and its communist-controlled guerrilla wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, a terrorist group that annually receives $80 million in military supplies from the Soviets.
It is hard to imagine a more simplistic and indeed Manichaean view of a complex policy dilemma: how to deal with a flawed but friendly foreign government. Since we have faced this dilemma before, experience should teach us caution if nothing else. In the case of China, Cuba, Iran, and Nicaragua, we lent our support to forces trying to topple a friendly but flawed regime. And in every case the revolutionaries we helped bring to power were both hostile to the United States and far more oppressive than the rulers they replaced.
But as Walter Kansteiner documents in his well-researched book, South Africa: Revolution or Reconciliation (IRD Press, 1988), influential cadres of lobbyists and publicists, both here and abroad, have for some time been openly supporting armed
... (1992 of 17035 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
