Word: clintons
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...margins of a letter written to the president by Puerto Rican Senator Ruben Berrios demanding the withdrawal of U.S. military personnel from Vieques, President Clinton wrote "This is wrong." In view of the president's agreement with the unanimous position of all political groups in Puerto Rico, his decision to permit bombing in Vieques to continue for the next five years is tantamount to a judge who tells a wife-beater: "Beating your wife is wrong, it is detrimental to your marriage and to her health, I recommend that you stop beating her by the year...
...word "recommend" is not accidental. Clinton's decision is an imposition to the people of Puerto Rico because it will mean that bombing in Vieques will occur for the next five years. But to the Navy it is only a recommendation that any following U.S. President can disregard, because following presidents will not be bound by Friday's decision. The end of this five-year time period will coincide with the next presidential election. Conservative Americans who fervently defend U.S. military interests will be able to exert much more pressure than Puerto Ricans, since we are not a part...
Thus, it is perfectly understandable that the people of Vieques and all Puerto Rican politicians (without a single exception) called President Clinton's decision "unacceptable." Puerto Ricans don't trust a Navy who is not bound to President Clinton's recommendation since they fear the Navy will convince the following president to heed their will to stay in Vieques...
...Navy which he commands. The only way to ensure that the Navy will leave Vieques from here to the year 2004 is by ordering their immediate withdrawal from the island. If he lets the Navy stay in Vieques, there is a strong probability that a following president will ignore Clinton's recommendation and permit further bombardment in Vieques. This is not a far-fetched possibility but the story of Vieques' history since 1981, when Congress recommended the Navy should leave Vieques as soon as possible. President Clinton should recognize that a just decision by a democratic president is long overdue...
...West's big guns are firing off warning shots: President Clinton says Russia will have to pay a price if it carries out its threat to annihilate the population of Grozny, and Britain's Tony Blair warns Moscow that "we're watching you." But those warnings - and even the IMF's decision to withhold its latest aid installment because of Russia's campaign - appear to have had little impact on Moscow. Despite Monday's ultimatum by the Russian military that civilians should leave Grozny by Saturday or else "be destroyed," Russian forces continued their heavy shelling of the city Tuesday...