Q:
What lessons can one draw from this whole issue of the Arabs taking American hostages?
A:
Which lessons can we draw from the story of the hostages?
There is a world of lessons here; I’m not capable of telling you all of them.
One lesson however is, that when we have a weak government and we in time become despised by other nations, then they’ll do anything to us.
It never would have happened if America wouldn’t have demonstrated dozens of times before that they’re nincompoops, that they have no spine.
Because people don’t start up with a powerful government. Why didn’t they try it on somebody else, on Russia?
The answer is, they know Russia wouldn’t stand for it.
But America? Uncle Sap* has given away the Panama Canal; a dictator arose in Panama and said “I want the Panama Canal.” So Uncle Sap says, “Alright, take it.”
What are we going to do in time of war? Suppose the dictator won’t let us through.
But now the dictator said “What do you mean you’re giving me the Panama Canal? It costs money now to take it over. You can’t just give it to me like this, without any money.”
So billions of dollars were given to him. He got the Panama Canal with billions of dollars.
So the world sees, it’s a meshugeneh country and you can do anything you want. You can pull Uncle Sam by the beard and he won’t wink his eyes at all. That’s why it happened. That’s one of the lessons. And believe me, it’s a big lesson. There are a lot of other lessons too but this one is a big one.
TAPE # 348 (February 1981)
*editor’s note: ‘Uncle Sap’ was a commonly used sarcastic way of referring to ‘Uncle Sam’, a title that implied weakness on the world stage.
