Constant Chaos

In Iraq, Saddam Hussein is thumbing his nose at the United Nations and threatening UN personnel with physical violence. In Kosovo, ethnic tensions are mounting and threaten to plunge the entire region into war. Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine have taken the first steps to possibly reestablishing the Soviet Union. Over the last few days I've been talking about the reasons that President Clinton should resign. I've said he should step down for the sake of his own soul, and that he should resign for the good of the country—in part to avoid bringing God's judgment on us all. But there's a third reason. A severely weakened American president poses a danger to the entire world. I cannot understand those who want censure. They want the president to be put in the dock, publicly shamed, and then they want to turn around and ask a weakened president to go represent us around the world, with all of the delicate foreign policy problems this country faces.

A WEAKENED AMERICAN PRESIDENT POSES A DANGER TO THE ENTIRE WORLD.

In a curious way, the world was more stable when there were two superpowers threatening one another with nuclear annihilation. It prevented a lot of rogue states from stepping out of line. But today that balance is gone. It's the United States versus unstable regimes all over the place. And don't think rogue leaders aren't watching what's happening in Washington. After our attack on Iraq accomplished little, Saddam Hussein became more reckless than ever and fired missiles at our jets. He evidently believes the president's strikes against him were politically motivated to divert attention from impeachment, and so he's laughing at us. Other nations—such as China—are mocking our insistence on human rights progress. In the last few weeks, the Chinese even put leading dissidents in prison—ignoring U.S. objections. The Cox Committee just uncovered evidence that we gave vital information to the Chinese. And what do the Chinese do? They laugh. And there's new evidence just coming out that terrorists plan to increase their activities during the millennium year. Do we really think we can shame and humiliate our president, and then ask him to deal with these problems? Biblically, government's role is to preserve order and promote justice. But a government can't do that with a leader who is so severely weakened. We're likely to have two years of chaos around the world, and our next president, whoever he is, will spend his entire tenure digging us out of the mess. If the Senate does not have the political will to follow through with the action begun in the House, then Bill Clinton and his supporters are sentencing the country to two years of potential foreign policy perils. If the president truly has the nation's interests at heart, he will spare us the agony of this trial and the consequences of having a weakened chief executive. He will step down and allow President Gore to deal firmly with the terrorists and dictators, with this country strongly united behind him. This is why, with great reluctance and the recognition that one does this only soberly and prayerfully, I have come to the conclusion that the president should do what is in the clear best interest of the country. The honorable thing, and the patriotic thing, is for President Clinton to step down from office.

01/11/99