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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 18, 1984
PAGE 9
Tannurah.
Japanese and Norwegian shippers followed this announcement,
saying their tankers will also stay away from the volatile waterway.
One must ask, however: How solid are U.S. pledges to preserve freedom of
navigation in the Persian Gulf? The debacle in Lebanon cost the
u.s.
a lot
of credibility in the Middle East. Washington does not want to intervene
unilaterally. It hopes that Britain and possibly France would share the
protecturate burden. Japan, despite its heavy (up to 60%) reliance on the
region for oil, can do nothing.
The U.S. would also prefer to be "invited" to act by threatened Arab oil
producing states. The hang-up here is the U.S. relationship with Israel.
To be really effective, the Pentagon would need to have its air-cover
planes based on the ground in cooperating Arab countries. Carrier-based
aircraft (from the carrier Kitty Hawk) could not do the job well. The pro
blem is, on-shore basing would lead to political problems. Kuwait, for ex
ample, still views America as "public enemy number one" because of the
U.S.-Israeli
connection.
Two other problems yet to be focused on by the news media are these: First,
if Saudi Arabia can't sell its oil, it can't earn the money necessary to
bankroll Iraq's war effort. Second, if no money comes in, what happens to
all the Saudi "megabucks" held by major U.S. financial institutions? The
banks, already strapped by the Latin world's debt crisis, could hardly
stand a Saudi withdrawal shock.
Cold War Enters a Deep Freeze
It is now very clear that the Soviet Union's boycott of the Olympic Games is
part and parcel of Moscow's broad-scale effort to humiliate President Rea
gan in an election year. The Soviet propaganda organs are rapidly esca
lating their attacks on the President, calling him a liar and comparing his
foreign policy, especially in Central America, to that pursued by Adolf
Hitler. Here is a background report by Dusko Oeder in the May 11 INTERNA
TIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE:
In a quick rejoinder to Mr. Reagan's televised speech Wednesday
night [ concerning Central America ] the news agency Tass used
invective rarely employed against leaders of other countries.
Tass said Mr. Reagan's address was "a shameless lie from begin
ning to end" and an effort to justify the U.S. policy of "mili
tary interference and aggression" in Central America.
"Since the times of Hitler's reich," the agency said, "no govern
ment has interfered so persistently, so openly and brazenly in
the internal affairs of sovereign states as has the Reagan admin
istration, utilizing all means at its disposal, including mili
tary force, to press for overthrow of lawful governments." ••.
The President's contention of Soviet and other foreign inter
ference in Central America was described as "deliberate, crude
and malicious lies totally unrelated to reality." "His speech,"
Tass said, "is yet another exercise in demagoguery, slander, in
whipping up of anti-Communism, chauvinism and hatred for other
countries and peoples, in preaching openly state terrorism and
war."•.•