Bush’s Speech on U.S. Goals in Middle East
Now that our troops are deployed in force in the Persian Gulf area, what are our leaders saying?
In his address to Congress and the nation, President Bush said that we will stand by our friends (Saudi Arabia and so on). Henry Kissinger, a former leader, has said that nations don’t have friends; they have interests. The President says that we are ready to check aggression as such.
Secretary of State James Baker says that we should be patient during this crisis. Congressmen say that some nations who are supposed to be on our side should put their money where their troops are not.
The buzz out of the Pentagon is that the brass is saying things like rotating troops in and out of the Persian Gulf area, although Bush says that Saddam Hussein has to get out of Kuwait immediately.
What our leaders are not saying is that if the national energy policy proposed by the Ford Administration in 1975 had been implemented, our men and women in uniform wouldn’t be in the Persian Gulf area in the first place.
GORDON FAY
Tarzana
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