Subject: A-Men, brother!!!.....
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 090054 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru@hotmail.com
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08:39 AM ET 09/11/98
ANALYSIS-U.S. allies anxious at Clinton agony
By Paul Taylor, Diplomatic Editor
LONDON, Sept 11 (Reuters) - U.S. allies in Europe are
watching President Bill Clinton's agony over the Monica Lewinsky
sex scandal with mounting alarm, fearing world leadership could
be paralysed at a time of crisis.
Some allied officials said privately that Clinton appeared
likely to be fatally wounded by a special prosecutor's report
due to be released on Friday, but a world in financial and
political turmoil needed a firm hand in the White House.
``If he can't restore his credibility, and it's hard to see
how he can, it would probably be better if he went sooner rather
than later,'' a continental European government official said.
[A-Men, brother!!!!...guru....]
He said European allies looked to Washington for a strong
lead on the crisis shaking world financial markets and on
troublespots such as Kosovo, Iraq, Russia and North Korea, but
there was little chance of leadership while the president was
distracted and weakened by scandal.
Fears about Clinton's survival sent stock markets plunging
around the globe on Thursday and Friday, compounding
international financial jitters that began with the Asian crisis
last year.
And the U.S. dollar, traditional refuge in times of crisis,
came under pressure due to political uncertainty in Washington.
``As markets zigzag, Russia crumbles and terrorism rears its
head, self-pitying paralysis is not good enough,'' Britain's
influential magazine The Economist said in an editorial.
European officials say a prolonged battle over impeachment
proceedings against Clinton for lying and covering up his affair
with Lewinsky would be most debilitating for U.S. leadership.
[A-Men, brother!!!!!.....guru.....]
Supportive statements and telephone calls to the White House
from allied leaders have virtually dried up.
Even British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Clinton's closest
foreign ally and fellow centre-left partner, is being less
effusive in his support.
A spokesman for Blair said the British leader regarded
Clinton as a good friend of Britain and still planned to meet
the U.S. president on a visit to New York on September 21 to
attend the United Nations General Assembly.
``Clearly, what's going on in Washington right now is a
matter for the American people, and the American Congress.
However, the president has been a good friend and ally to this
country,'' Blair's spokesman said.
He stressed the close relationship between Britain and the
United States rather than the remarkable political and personal
chemistry between the New Labour leader and his New Democrat
ally.
British Conservative opposition foreign affairs spokesman
Michael Howard said: ``Those who have such a great admiration
for the role which the United States has played in the defence
of freedom can only grieve for the present state of affairs in
that land.''
Across the globe in Australia, Prime Minister John Howard,
seeking re-election on October 3, trod cautiously in commenting
on Clinton's political future.
``I have to chose my words carefully,'' he told a radio
interviewer. ``I believe he has been a very good president.''
In Germany, where Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Social Democratic
challenger in a September 27 election, Gerhard Schroeder, had
sought to make political capital out of spending an hour in the
Oval Office with Clinton last month, there has been official
silence about the deepening crisis in Washington.
The conservative daily Die Welt said in an editorial: ``At
home Clinton is finished, but he is still needed in the rest of
the world.''
While serving government officials were reluctant to comment
on the record, a recently retired former British ambassador to
NATO said it would be best for the United States and its allies
if Clinton were to resign next week.
[A-Men, brother!!!!!......guru.....}
``The man is gravely lacking in credibility now in any
international environment, and he is bound to be totally
preoccupied and distracted. He can't be thinking much about
Kosovo or indeed about counter-terrorism,'' said Sir Michael
Alexander, who was at NATO earlier in the Clinton presidency.
``His ability to function effectively is terribly damaged.
If there is some big crisis, the White House's motives in
handling it are going to be terribly suspect -- either of
seeking to distract attention from the scandal or of being
crippled by it.''
``A long drawn-out rearguard action against impeachment
would be the worst of all. It would be better if it were ended
quickly, like next week,'' said Alexander, who is now chairman
of the Royal United Services Institute for defence studies.
[A-Men, brother!!!!......guru.....]
Some analysts said there was a danger that U.S. adversaries
such as Iraqi President Saddam Hussein or Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic would be emboldened by Clinton's distraction.
``When the cat's away, the mice will play,'' a French
official said.
Saddam is preparing his response to a U.N. Security Council
decision to suspend regular reviews of sanctions against Baghdad
until he resumes cooperation with arms inspectors charged with
eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programmes.
Milosevic has pressed an offensive against ethnic Albanian
separatist guerrillas in Kosovo, driving some 200,000 people
from their homes and causing widespread destruction, despite
Western calls to stop.
^REUTERS@
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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html