Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site flairvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!zehntel!dual!amdcad!decwrl!flairvax!baba From: baba@flairvax.UUCP (Baba ROM DOS) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Those Crates Again Message-ID: <834@flairvax.UUCP> Date: Fri, 30-Nov-84 05:06:36 EST Article-I.D.: flairvax.834 Posted: Fri Nov 30 05:06:36 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 2-Dec-84 03:37:28 EST References: <1078@pyuxa.UUCP> Organization: Fairchild AI Lab, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 40 > I would like to ask a question, Sevener. Why is it that the Sandanistas >do not say to the world and the US in particular, "Hey, let's sit down >and talk about this. No pre-conditions, let's just talk about our >differences." The Contra plan is so full of pre-conditions that it >would take a King Solomon to unravel the strings. If the Sandanistas >truely wanted to live and let live, they would be glad to make some >type of overture. Alas, though, I feel they have other plans for >Central America, and they don't look too healthy for the other nations >in the region. >T. C. Wheeler For someone who is in the process of accusing someone of not reading past newspaper headlines, T.C. seems to have missed a few issues as well. The Sandinistas have repeatedly and publicly requested such a dialogue, (it even made the *headlines* once or twice), and in fact low level discussions are presently (or were recently) taking place in Mexico. The Reagan administration has refused to receive emissaries of the Sandinist government, and indeed the administration refused to accredit Nicaragua's ambassador to the US for several months on some pretty flimsy grounds, until the Sandinists recently withdrew the appointment of the provocative "revolutionary heroine" and replaced her with a more acceptable former law professor. If there is a Contra plan, it is known principally to the CIA ;-). The *Contadora* plan, which was ultimately accepted by the Sandinistas, was then abandoned by the Reagan administration (in a piece of particularly sloppy diplomacy) because there were too *few* strings. I don't trust Ortega and Borge at all. The Sandinist revolution seems to be taking the traditional Leninist lurch to the left, under the guidance of a power hostile to the United States. But you must consider that the Sandinistas overthrew a monstrously corrupt dynastic regime installed and maintained by the United States. The US has *always* been the Enemy to these people. It probably doesn't take much in the way of Soviet or Cuban whisperings to convince them that the US is going to make every effort to destroy their revolution. The clever thing to have done would have been to discredit the Soviet/Cuban scenario. The Reagan administration would appear to be doing just the opposite. It's just sad that the price of bad statesmanship must so often be paid in innocent lives. Baba