The Observation Deck

I was reading the Nica Times, Nicaraguan's English newspaper the other day and was stunned to hear them complaining about the US not paying what the World Court determined we owed them 17 Billion dollars. So I went and researched it. And they were right. But I seriously do not remember hearing about this on the news. Maybe our news is too busy reporting on Anna Nicole, Brittany and Paris.

This is Wikipedia, I know, but I find it easier to read than all the court documents:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua_v._United_States

The Republic of Nicaragua v. The United States of America[1] was a case heard in 1986 by the International Court of Justice that found that the United States had violated international law by supporting Contra guerrillas in their war against the Nicaraguan government and by mining Nicaragua's harbors. The Court ruled in Nicaragua's favor, but the United States refused to abide by the Court's decision, on the basis that the court erred in finding that it had jurisdiction to hear the case,[2] The court stated that the United States had been involved in the "unlawful use of force".[3]

On November 3, 1986 the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution in order to pressure the U.S. to pay the fine. Only El Salvador, which also had disputes with Nicaragua, and Israel voted with the U.S. In spite of this resolution, the U.S. still chose not to pay the fine.

1) So, I have a few thoughts. We, being the US, seem to be a little schizophrenic on the UN and the World Court. If we are prosecuting Milosevich, it is good and if we are working to get sanctions against Iraq, it is good and if they violate those sanctions, we have a right to attack. But we seem to ignore them quite easily if they go against us.

2) If a court rules against you, do you still have to abide by the decision of that court, even if you don't like it - isn't that part of the rule of law?

3) Doesn't Bush see the insult he makes to the Nicaraguan people when he offers to let his Naval hospital ship stop and provide services to some of their people, when if he paid the debt he owed them, they wouldn't need our charity?

4) Do we see the danger in Chavez helping them to help themselves with his brand of communism instead of us doing what we are required to by law and the UN?

Granted, this is a long time ago. Bush Sr. didn't pay, Clinton didn't pay and now W isn't paying either. I would much rather see us pay our war debt - I'm not sure what it would be now with interest than spend more money in Iraq.

JMHO, I would like to hear your views.

Seems like everyone owes everyone something, but nothing ever gets paid back. Ex: What does Japan owe the U.S for rebuilding it? Germany? France?
Next question is did they pay their debts to us?

I heard a few "old guys" at Madison park, sitting on park benches a long time ago, and one said "Isn't it funny, you can go to war with the U.S, loose, then get all the money you want, and then come into the U.S with cars and everything else and make even more money".

Makes you go hmmmm.

Mark Allan Crnolatas

As per M Crnolatas

Add MASSIVE - Materials , Food , War supplies etc - Pre WW II Lend- Lease to G Britain and Russia and continuing thru war

Add Cold War protection - W Germany and S Korea ( still )

Add 50-65 years interest "due" USA - and I suspect "our' debts are well paid over . But a useless exercise to try to obtain $$$ for these long ago efforts .

By that Criterion it is probably a good idea we didn't "win" the VietNam "War". I mean, realistically we did win. Millions of them were dead, and we bombed and burned the place to hell. But we pulled out before realizing if we technically "won" we'd get stuck with the tab.

Japan and S.Korea's industrial superiority(when adjusted for size and weight) over the U.S. was made possible mostly by the U.S. Free Traders. And by S.Korea and Japan's protectionism and industrial nationalism.

When we were in a small village in Finland, almost everyone there told us that they had fully repaid their war debt for WWII. It was difficult but they were proud that they lived up to their responsibilities. To be quite honest, I don’t know about other countries.

Great Britain and Russia were our allies, so were W. Germany and S. Korea. Did we loan these countries money that was supposed to be repaid? I don't think so.

Nicaragua is an independent country and was at the time of our intervention. We didn't like the government's politics, so we destroyed their bridges, mined their ports and destroyed some of their oil. We trained guerillas/terrorists to destroy the existing government. They took us to the World Court and got a judgment, the UN passed a resolution that we had to pay. This is a poor country - come on don’t you think we should pay what we owe?

We want other countries to follow the World Court. We want other countries to obey the UN resolutions. Just not us?

BTW, Nicaragua has just re-elected the same president as they had when the Reagan administration was in power. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ortega_Saavedra

Do you think we will feel a need to interfere again?

I always liked the sign that was up for years at the HS. Do what is right because it is right. That is the America I grew up in – or thought I did. We repay out debts because it is the right thing to do. If other people don’t pay their debts it doesn’t matter, we should still pay ours. JMHO.