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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 19, 1983
PAGE 13
Back to the first part of Leviticus 26:19--"I will break the pride of your
power." Confidence in the projection of America's power has not yet been
completely broken in the United States, at least not in certain leadership
circles. The current Administration, in fact, is doing its human best to
revive slumping pride, so sorely lacking since Vietnam. William Pfaff ex
plains in the August 15, 1983 issue of The NEW YORKER:
It is difficult not to think that the issue of El Salvador serves
for many in the Reagan Administration, and among its supporters
in the intellectual community,�! means
£l
which to refi l ht and
win the Vietnam War. They intend to demonstrate once and or all
how those who opposed the war in Vietnam, and argued that it
could not, or would not, be won at a proportionate moral and
political cost, or said that it should not be fought at all, were
wrong.
This time, in Central America, a new United States Administration
will apply measures that were never effectively used in Vietnam-
they maintain--and will demonstrate the will to win, that "re
solve" which wa�lacklng of Vietnam.--Those who obstruct them
will be held�sponsible-if Central America should then be
"lost."
These efforts, however, will not succeed. A squeamish Congress and a press
opposed to the President's '
'gunboat diplomacy" will snatch defeat from the
jaws of victory, if it ever even gets that far.
Empire-Building Libyan Calls U.S. Bluff
American power has also been called into question in the Libya-Chad clash
in North Africa. An article in the WALL STREET JOURNAL, August 18, 1983,
entitled "Qadhafi Made Reagan Appear the Paper Tiger" shows that the Libyan
dictator has called the U.S. bluff this time. He is proceeding with his
plan to partition Chad, lopping off its northern Arab half, on the way to
creating his own "Islamic Empire" stretching from one end of North Africa
to the other.
N'DJAMENA, Chad--The U.S. and Libya stood eyeball to eyeball over
the pale sands in Chad, and the Reagan administration blinked••..
Col. Muammar Qadhafi called Washington's bluff in Chad. Africa's
leaders can't help but wonder now about America's word.
The Chadian civil war has sputtered and flared for almost two
decades now.••. It might have sputtered and flared unnoticed for
years more if Col. Qadhafi hadn't sent his fighter planes to bomb
an oasis in central Chad on July 30 and dared anyone to stop him.
Quickly, the U.S. took up the Libyan's dare: then, just as
quickly, it backed off again.
Col. Qadhafi hasn't ever hidden his desire to reshape Africa,
with himself as the brightest star in a constellation of Moslem
states.... Col. Qadhafi's attempts to suborn Chad are part of a
far grander scheme to establish an Islamic Saharan empfre
stretching from Mauritania 1n the west to Sudan in the east.
Already, theLibyan leader has�arnea ITTger Is presidentthat
Niamey [Niger's capital] is his next target.