KING: We're back with Ambassador Joe Wilson. "The Politics of Truth" is his best seller. What do you make of the indictment of Scooter Libby?
WILSON: Well, I think the prosecutor was very clear that the indictment basically means that he was impeded in his efforts to get to the bottom of this matter and therefore is indicting on obstruction of justice. I think these are very serious charges. It's a sad day for America when indictments are handed up to the door of the White House.
At the same time, it seems to me, it's a reaffirmation of our system in which the rule of law is what our whole social contract is predicated on. No man is above the law, so I celebrate -- I celebrate Pat Fitzgerald's efforts and the efforts of the Justice Department and the FBI team and, in particular, my fellow citizens who sat on the grand jury for the last two years and looked at all the evidence.
That's what
I'm clapping about! If we want to win the war on terrorism or terrorists or terrorist tactics and militant religious nuts, this is how we do it. We demonstrate a better way to deal with lawlessness, dishonorable behavior and betrayal in our elected public servants.
The mainstream in So Asia are not stupid, illeducated or unsophisticated. Especially Saudi Arabia. They've had free socialized education since the oil boom in the `60's, I think. Same w/ Iraq. It was about the most socially liberal country in the region for awhile.
These are really not people who can, or should, be beaten into submission. They've been beating each other pretty hard for a very long time. I think they can take a few blows w/o flinching. I don't think we have the stomach for that level of hostility and violence as a lifestyle. And I wouldn't like us very much if we did. Would you?
No, if we want to come out on the top (or at least not on the bottom) of that deal, we've got do use civility.
If, OTOH, we just want to win a war on people who live over our oil, well then that's going to have to be perpetual war on Terra. Agricultural oil fuels can't
possibly be
that expensive, can they? Even if it had to be cotton, which it doesn't, it would still be less destructive and cheaper.
The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.
--William Safire
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Drug war POW
Straight, Sarasota
`80 - `82