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Name:
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Yankee06
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Subject:
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Why let him go?
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Date:
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9/1/2009 12:03:43 AM
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JAG,
-You asked, would this have also happened under Bush, Clinton, etc. My answer is No!. Here's why I think it wouldn't have...
-The question is why did teh British government let him go? Was it in the Brits national interest to do so? --apparently Yes. Whas it in ours? --apparently No! Was it truely a humanitarian gesture for a sick man? --I doubt it; most Brits apparently think he should have rot in prison.
-Countries act in their own national interests. When doing something like this, a government has to run through a formal or informal checklist of teh impacts of such an act on its own political popularity at home, it's impact on its alliances, it's impact on its economy, etc.
-Letting this convicted terrorist go was certainly not popular at home. It certaily was not popular with us. And certainly, we couldn't do anything significant enough to exert "inluence" over the Brits not to do it.
-So I assume we need to find out and understand why teh British government really wanted to do it. From the stuff I read from people that ought to know, the reason was oil. The Brits need it, the Lybians offered them a deal that we apparently couldn't match. Thus, we are a nation, at least in this instance, without suffiecent influence over one of our closest allies. We are becoming weak in their eyes.
-SO what do they see when they look at us now? Here's my take: They see a US administration that is supposedly positioned to be in power for at least another 8-12 years. They probably believe that this US administration, based on Obama's recent trip to the mid-east and europe, wants to himself develop closer relationships with Arab countries. Thus the Brits probaly surmise that since the Brits don't have their own oil, and the US can't provide them with oil, and that the Russians keep screwing with Europe's gas sources, and that the US is positioning itself with closer ties with Lybia and the rest of teh mideast , then the Brits see all this as an opportunity for them to take care of themselves with little adverse pressure from the US.
-What does this mean for the future. It means in my mind that teh Brits and the rest of Europe will go it alone more often in striking up deals with the Arab world. This weakens teh historic ties within NATO and thereby weakens US influence within Europe and on Europe's dealing with the Arabs. Teh weakening of this half-century alliance system makes us less power in exerting our influences in many areas, to include economic. this makes it harder for us to come out of this recession.
-Now to answer your question above, could Bush have stopped it? Clinton? Reagan? My answer would be that I think it would have been very unlikely that this would have happened under Bush because Bush had such a close relationship with Tony Blair. During the Bush years, teh US and Britain were almost in lack step in dealing with teh Arab terrorists. I'd give it a 99% chance that it would not have happened. Further, I don't think it wuold have happened under Clinton either. Clinton led Europe through the Balkin war. Withouot Clinton, Europe would have seen an ethnis slaughter in teh Balkans, the like of which would have been second only to that seen of Jews in WWII. Clinton was well respected in Britain for that action. I think he would have been able to inluence the Brits not to do this. Reagan and Thatcher? ---need I even voice an opinion on that?
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