US POLICY SHOULDN'T SIDE WITH MILITANT ISLAM

By Bob Djurdjevic

PHOENIX - They are killings us on the ground (World Trade Center, Saudi Arabia); they may be killing us in the air, too (we hope to find out soon about the TWA 800 flight, preferably from the FBI, rather than from the Hezbollah or Hamas).

But now, an unrelenting U.S. pro-Islamic policy may also be killing American companies in global markets.

Less than three weeks ago, Turkey, one of our "key allies," according to the State Dept. rhetoric, and a NATO member to boot, announced a $20 billion natural gas deal with Iran, a supposedly "rogue state" (also per State Dept.). Turkey did it in contravention of the U.S. led sanctions. With "key allies" like Turkey, who needs enemies, right? Wrong!

Instead of dispatching the Sixth Fleet to cut off Turkey from the rest of the world, and leaning on his serf, Boris Yeltsin, to do likewise from the north, Bill Clinton's government did not even give Turkey a verbal lashing.

It is an age-old adage that, "he who is silent appears to acquiesce."  No wonder, therefore, that on Aug. 29, the emboldened, Islamic-fundamentalist Turkish government also signed an agreement about bilateral trade, economic and industrial links with Cuba - another "rogue state," on the State Dept. list.

Unlike Iran, Cuba is right on our doorstep. Talk about poking a finger in our eye!

If our leftwing President really believed his own tough talk against the Castro regime in Cuba, you'd think he might have threatened Turkey with expulsion from NATO if its Cuba deal went through. Instead, our closet Castro admirer was riding on a train through "America's heartland" while Turkey was puncturing a hole in it! Once again, "he who is silent appears to acquiesce."

Nor was Turkey the only American "key ally" to snub its nose at the U.S. The linchpin of our European policy, Germany, did $6 billion worth of trade with Iran in 1993 - also violating the U.S. led embargo.

In fact, Germany's relations with Iran have now gotten so chummy that it arranged in mid-July a swap of two Israeli soldiers' bodies for several dozen Hezbollah prisoners which Israel was holding.

And why should our allies take Clinton's tough talk seriously when the U.S. President himself approved an illicit Iran-Bosnia arms deal in 1994? If an American President isn't protecting the vital American interests, why should the foreigners?

But what if Germany's and Turkey's appeasing of militant Islam were perhaps something Clinton would like the U.S. to do, but can't quite say it publicly yet, for fear of electoral backlash? What if Germany and Turkey were Clinton's foreign policy proxies?

With un-American Presidents like that, we shouldn't worry about the "rogue elements" abroad.

By the way, Clinton's nominal presidential "opponent" (actually more like a global fraternity member), Bob Dole, isn't far behind. He never protested Turkey's outrageous deals with Iran or Cuba, either. In fact, Dole has been one of the pillars of the U.S. global pro-Muslim policy on Capitol Hill.

Why? Because of money.

According to a Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy Oct. 31, 1995 article, "it is now emerging that Dole has for many years been believed to have received funds from Albanian sources, and other Muslim sources allegedly connected with radical Islamists in Sudan, and thence, to Iran."

But how many dead GIs in Saudi Arabia, Bosnia or elsewhere in the Islamic world, will it take before we reverse this Clinton-Dole globalist policy?

Next "American" President?

How many American civilians will have to die at home, a la World Trade Center bombing or the TWA 800 flight, before the American people finally realize that both leading 1996 presidential candidates' foreign policy is decidedly un-American!?

To further the interests of America's powerful oil lobby, both Clinton and Dole have done as much harm as any self-confessed American "enemies" could have to America's real interests - both at home and abroad. Having either Clinton or Dole in charge of the U.S. national security is like hiring a fox to guard a chicken coop. With the American people inside.

Bob Djurdjevic
TRUTH IN MEDIA
Phoenix, Arizona