Thursday, March 28, 2024

Letter didnt look at all the facts

We are writing in response to Steve Milkiewicz’s letter titled “Gore Not Fit to be U.S. President” (SN 2/12). There are many inaccuracies in his argument and we feel obligated to correct them.

To begin with, the United States still has the strongest military in the history of the world and, in fact, Al Gore proposed during the campaign a larger increase in military spending than George W. Bush did.

Secondly, Viktor Chernomyrdin was prime minister of Russia and was their second in command to then-president Boris Yeltsin, he was not their “Stop Official.” He’s partially right, the Gore-Chernomyrdin deal was a mega news story, but it was covered by the media, including the New York Times.

Gore did reach a secret agreement with Chernomyrdin, but your facts on the agreement are completely false. Before the deal, Russia was selling submarines, fighter jets, and other weapons to Iran, and the Gore agreement was to stop these sales by December 1999. Gore did not make a deal to arm Iran; he attempted to keep Russia from further arming this terrorist state.

Also, since Russia was the party selling weapons to Iran, and the United States law has no authority on a foreign nation, Gore did nothing in violation of any U.S. sanction. He was, in fact, trying to get another country to go along with it.

In regards to Milkiewicz’s comment on Bill Clinton and the United Nations, there are certain sacrifices that must be made by every nation, including the United States, to ensure world peace. This is why former President Clinton called for a United Nations Army. If fighting for world peace is wrong, then what is right?

Furthermore, Jesse Jackson and Joe Lieberman were attempting to protect the rights of voters in Florida who were disenfranchised in the last election. Black people were turned away from the polls, harassed by police officers, not to mention the confusion in Palm Beach County. Democrats were not trying to pin the blame on republicans, we were merely trying to ensure that every person had their vote counted - and this clearly did not happen in the 2000 election.

Finally, as for the Republicans actually winning the election - last we checked, Al Gore won the popular vote by 500,000 and with the irregularities in Florida, we’ll never know who should have won in the electoral college.

We’re not crying that Bush is president, however, we will kindly show him the door in 2004.

Brad Harris and Gregory Hose
political theory and constitutional democracy sophomores
Damian Bundschuh
no-preference freshman

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