Friday
August 4, 2000
Talk is cheap
Gary Sick's long expose on the pearls of wisdom spewed by Dick Cheny
in various stages of political undress fails to show how this man, if elected,
will fulfill the promise of "Better
for Business." Whose business? Just like Gary Sick, Dick Cheney
speaks with a forked tongue depending on the make-up of the audience.
First as to Mr. Sick: Here is a retrofit minor official of a failed
presidency who runs a site dedicated to discussion of "Gulf"
issues. Notice, how deftly he has managed to refer to this body of water
as the Persian Gulf in the first paragraph of his piece.
As for Cheney's remarks cited in by Mr. Sick, it is worth noting that
where the Congress interjects itself in the sanctions debate, Cheney fiercely
defends the powers of the president, mainly because if the Congress had
gone the way that some would have wanted it Cheney's oil operations would
have lost out big time.
Where his fudiciary responsibility to his shareholders dictates he speaks
against the Iran sanctions in order to secure for his company a favorable
future legal position. And when approached just this week at the RNC in
Philadephia, his people seemed to indicate, among other things, that the
concern over the "Iran 10" and other issues stand in the way
of any removal of sanctions, end of discussion.
The same bunch also referred to Yasser Arafat as a "terrorist"
because of the failed Camp David talks.Talk is cheap and Cheney delivers
it as well as anyone. Maybe, instead of stringing along Cheney's expedient
remarks, Mr. Sick could venture a guess as to what Cheney will do about
the sanctions.
My guess is that as long as Iran remains a threat to "the US interests
in the region," Bush and Cheney will continue in the path of the
Clinton adminstration -- that is, muddling through. Ensuring Israel's internal
and external security and the free flow of the cheap oil from more or less
stable emirates of the Persian Gulf will define to what extent a Republican
White House and Congress will be open to easing the Iran sanctions under
real life, real politik conditions.
Guive Mirfendereski
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