Opinion Clinton'S Words, Clinton'S Deeds By DOUGLAS LUMMIS	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
クリントンの言葉と行い クリントンの言葉と行ない 今年7月、クリントン大統領が 九州・沖縄サミット出席のために沖縄を訪れ 平和祈念公園で県民に向けて演説をした。 沖縄の平和のためには米軍基地の維持が必要だと 力説したが、彼は今までさまざまな場面で 平和重視とは言えない行動を取ってきたのではないか。

On July 21 this year, U.S. President Bill Clinton gave a talk at the Cornerstone of Peace, at Peace Memorial Park in Okinawa, just before the G-8 Summit.In it he skillfully used the language and images of the Okinawa anti-base movement to reach the opposite conclusion. The Battle of Okinawa taught Okinawans to hate war, he said, and it is precisely to prevent war that the bases are here. If you believe "life itself is a treasure" (nuchi du takara), you should welcome the U.S. Marines.

What qualification has this man to talk about peace? True, it was once believed he was a conscientious draft resister. But in retrospect we can see that he was only a draft evader, which is quite different. From his actions (as opposed to his words) he is the most militaristic U.S. president since Richard Nixon.

Moreover, the evidence is overwhelming that twice he ordered military actions to distract attention from his sex scandals.

On August 20, 1998, Clinton ordered missile attacks on a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, and a military training camp in Afghanistan. Neither government was warned. This was three days after Clinton had "apologized" on TV for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. And it was the very evening Lewinsky was resuming her testimony before the grand jury.

Clinton claimed the pharmaceutical plant was manufacturing a chemical used to make nerve gas, and that it was financed by the alleged terrorist Osama Bin Laden. But as it turned out, the U.S. couldn't prove either claim. All evidence indicated that the plant was manufacturing medicines, and that Bin Laden didn't own it.

As for the camp in Afghanistan, Clinton claimed that there was a meeting of Bin Laden and all his associates there, so this was an excellent opportunity to kill them. (Since none had been convicted in a court of law, and the U.S. had not declared war on them, I suppose "murder" is the correct term.) But as it turned out, none of the suspected terrorists was hit by a missile. Only some Pakistani troops training there were killed.

On December 16, 1998, Clinton ordered a missile attack against Iraq. This was the day before the impeachment debate in the House of Representatives was to begin. Clinton said that the government of Iraq was not complying with the U.N. inspection team investigatingwhether Iraq was manufacturing "weapons of mass destruction."

But, Iraqi non-cooperation had been known for months. Actually on November 14, 1998, an attack had been planned, tacitly supported by the U.N., but Clinton personally cancelled it after the planes were in the air. At the time no one understood why. Now it seems he wanted to save the attack to use later, in case the impeachment debate started to go against him.

And this man dared utter the words, at Okinawa's heiwa no ishiji, "life itself is a treasure".

[Reference: Chapter 5, "Clinton's War Crimes", in Christopher Hitchens: No One Left To Lie To, Longon/New York: Verso, 1999.]

Shukan ST: Sept. 8, 2000

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