In war or
business, innocents always victims
Commentary
by PAT MURPHY
Sure,
tears and sympathy are in order for the innocent 85,000 employees of
auditing giant Arthur Andersen, most probably out on the street in due
course as the firm’s felony conviction dooms its survival.
But, isn’t
that always the case? Innocents pay the dearest for foolish or
misbegotten judgment or fraudulent acts of brass that are in charge.
The most
tragic victims of errant decisions are the tens of thousands of America’s
finest, innocent youth who’ve paid with lives and limbs in war because
of military commanders and U.S. presidents who ordered them into
meaningless and pointless battles—to name just two, Gen. Douglas
MacArthur’s ill-fated, ego-driven charge met by hordes of Chinese at
the Yalu River in Korea in 1950, and President Lyndon Johnson’s
obsession with hurling more men into battle like so much cannon fodder
rather than admitting defeat in Vietnam.
Then
there were loyal young White House stalwarts of Richard Nixon who paid
for his felonious behavior by forever wearing the stigma of Watergate
shame as well as some serving jail time.
Bill
Clinton betrayed his believers with lies and deceptions and delays,
saying that accusations of his predatory sexual behavior were merely
right-wing political slanders.
When the
final dollar is counted, investors will have lost billions of dollars
this year alone because of criminal machinations of corporate CEOs
seeking to dump stock and enrich themselves before calamity struck.
Princes
of the American Catholic church surely have brought shame and disrepute
on their institution, perhaps even cheated the needy by stripping the
cupboard of hundreds of millions of dollars, otherwise reserved for
charity, to settle lawsuits growing out of indefensible cover-ups of
criminal sexual molesters in the priesthood.
And even
as Washington politicians from President Bush down through Congress
wring their hands in mock sympathy for employees of bankrupt
corporations, they, too, are blundering with the nation’s future
economic stability by mindless spending and tax cuts that have wiped out
a robust surplus and saddled the country with new deficits and renewed
debt.
Who, now,
will weep for the new victims, the taxpayers?
•
Keep your
eyes on a freshman Arizona congressman, Rep. Jeff Flake, and the
bipartisan ad hoc congressional panel he’s organized, the Cuba Working
Group, composed of 19 House Republicans and 19 House Democrats.
Its aim
is to end U.S. embargo policies toward Cuba—and thus directly
challenge fellow Republican George W. Bush’s policies.
Keep this
in mind: Flake is a rigid conservative Republican, a fifth generation
Arizonan, who was executive director of the Goldwater Institute at
Arizona State University before being elected.
Flake
couldn’t be clearer in his goal.
"Quite
simply, our Cuba policy has failed. After forty years, the United State’s
policy toward Cuba has yielded few results. I think it’s time to try
something new. Only through engagement can we promote democracy and
improve human rights."
This is a
Republican rebuke of President Bush’s recent promises in South Florida
to tighten the screws on Cuba, promises pandering to the vote-rich
Cuban-American community on which his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, relies for
reelection.
Cuban-Americans
have been dictating failed U.S. strategies through nine U.S. presidents
(Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush the Elder, Clinton,
Bush the Junior).
How
demeaning that greed for the South Florida Cuban vote should lower the
presidency to such a low state and maintain imperious foreign policy
toward nothing more than a pesky, pipsqueak tyrant.