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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, November 14, 1979
Page 13
remember the Shah, an ally for 37 years: During the 1973 war he was the
only ruler in the region who banned Soviet overflights. He urged an end
to the oil embargo, and rushed fuel to U.S. ships. He rushed arms to
South Vietnam (you remember South Vietnam: an ally deceased). The Shah
helped the United States in many ways, but such is our trembling fear of
Khornaini that the Shah had to become a cancer patient before we would let
him past the Statue of Liberty.
"A nation afraid of Khomaini should not bluster at the Soviet Union. A
nation that blusters about Soviet activities in Cuba being 'unacceptable,'
and then says well, we, come to think about it, we just remembered that
these activities are, well, for want of a better word, acceptable--and,
no, don't worry, we won't reject SALT II; we are very decent, you must
admit, cancelling the B-1 and neutron weapons, no reciprocity asked; and,
oh, yes: Are you quite sure that 25 million metric tons of grain will be
sufficient?--� nation that behaves this way had better get used to the
crackle of derisive laughter.
"Speaking of grain, and of photographs that take some getting used to,
and of the price of losing wars, consider Cambodia.... The starving
millions, the obstruction of relief: This is Hanoi's work and could be
stopped hy Moscow. But we flood the Soviet Union with grain while the
Soviet Union collaborates in keeping to a trickle the relief for the
people whom it is helping to exterminate.
"Will we make continued grain shipments to the Soviet Union contingent
on Soviet cooperation about Cambodia? No. President Carter says
Cambodia is a 'moral issue.
1
Yes. But I am past trying to understand
what he means by that, and past hoping that he will understand that,
between nations, such issues also are problems of power."
Perhaps Britain's renowned philosopher Malcolm Muggeridge sununarized
America's plight best when he recently said:
"America is a disengaging giant--it's washed� as it has decided not
to be the world leader. Never had there been a nation of such pre
eminence as the United States after World War II. But America had no
heart for the role. It could only think of giving away money, and for
doing this it was, of course, despised."
Muggeridge might have quoted Jeremiah 4:30: "Your lovers despise you;
they seek your life." Progressively since World War II, America's
political establishment has abandoned the policy of maintaining global
respect for American power and has instead sought to be "loved" by the
other nations--small and great, rich and poor, friend and foe. It hasn't
worked.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau
*Dangerfield, an American comedian, is famous for his "I don't get no
respect" routines.