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Politicians sink to a new low: Congress considers PNTR for Communist Vietnam Returning to the well for more communist appeasement, more welfare for tyrants, and more enrichment of communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs at the expense of working Americans By John Patrick Kusumi and NoManZero PNTR for Communist Vietnam is the worst idea to come down the pike since PNTR for Communist China. The Vietnamese version of PNTR is vulnerable to many of the same charges as were applicable to Chinese PNTR. "Welfare for tyrants." "Communist appeasement." "Enriching communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs." There are flawed and faulty economics that underlie and underpin PNTR. PNTR does not stand on a strong foundation rather instead, PNTR is a house of cards built on a foundation of swiss cheese. Those who would globalize free trade may have won some votes in Congress; but, they lose when the playing field is a fair debate. They fail to persuade us that PNTR is better than swiss cheese economics, and a kick in the nuts for America. Your authors are veterans of the cause that fights for freedom in Communist China. Also, we have stood and campaigned with Vietnamese as well as Chinese dissidents. Those groups seek to end totalitarian persecution in their homelands. In both cases, a Communist Party rules their homeland. China and Vietnam have two brutal, totalitarian regimes that persecute their people, deny political freedom, press freedom, freedom of religion, and run sweatshops featuring forced, slave labor. Their catalogs of human rights abuses go on and on. We have had this fight before. Six years ago was the fight against granting PNTR, permanent normal trade status, to Communist China. At that time, proponents of PNTR sugar-coated it by promising, "trade will bring freedom." By now, there has come to be an actual track record to PNTR (the Chinese version). The record is dismal and ruinous. Trade did not bring freedom; rather instead, human rights abuses escalated in Communist China. (Any salesmen and pitchmen for PNTR are challenged because we can now point to China and ask, "Okay they now have PNTR trade; where's the freedom that was advertised with PNTR?") Far from bringing freedom, PNTR brought with it ballooning trade deficits. Under PNTR, the U.S. trade deficit with Communist China shot up from $86 billion to $202 billion. For some Americans, the trade deficit may seem a meaningless figure, but to discerning eyes, we see that it is a fire hose of money, going from here to there. That sum drains out of the U.S. economy, and pours into the Chinese economy. The trade deficit is a gravy train for communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs. When we fought PNTR once before, it crossed the following issues: Freedom, human rights, democracy, and overall, the tyranny issue; trade deficits, jobs, wages, the strength of the dollar, inflation, the cost of living, the U.S. industrial base, the arsenal of democracy (U.S. manufacturing capacity), and overall, the U.S. economy; American power and, national security. Conceptually, PNTR for Vietnam is no different than PNTR for China, meaning that the same issues are crossed once again. All of the issues, matters, and concerns above were weakened, getting the short end of the stick, in China PNTR. America got a kick in the nuts at that occasion, and to do the same now with Vietnam will give America another kick in the nuts. PNTR for China is an abysmal failure! The U.S. House and Senate should not be reaching for more of the same, confident that their failed approach with China is good for Vietnam. Far from it, the U.S. House and Senate should be passing the measures, introduced in Congress, that would revoke and remove PNTR from China. After the first PNTR fight, your authors cannot be fooled again. Rather instead, we have perfected our case against PNTR. It is intellectually indefensible, brain dead, and DOA (dead on arrival) here. The earlier PNTR was an obscenity, and to suggest it for Vietnam is an obscenity raised to an obscene power. As a regime, Vietnams may be even more noxious and objectionable than Chinas in perceptions of average Americans. They may find it to be less savory, less sympathetic, less worthy and less deserving, due to our experience of the Vietnam War. That regime killed 58,000 Americans! Ask any group of Vietnam veterans how betrayed they feel. They fought against the regime, not for its enrichment, while PNTR is like candy placed into the hands of the regime. America was profoundly taken in the lopsided deal with China. Six years ago, Communists could be laughing all the way to the bank. If Congress seals this new deal, Communiststhis time, North Vietnamese Communistscan again be laughing all the way to the bank. Any Americans who care about the war veterans should be more than highly offended they should be lit with outrage. This deal may entail a gut, visceral reaction of revulsion, and a rising chorus of Americans against the deal. The textile industry has already reflected that type of opposition, as have Vietnam veterans, Vietnamese dissidents, and Chinese dissidents. We expect that once again, they will be joined by Catholics, unions, human rights groups, and the manufacturing industry those who went on record once before against PNTR. Congress and some in the news media expediently forget that America is an anti-communist country. China is not Most Favored in this Nation. At the end of day, neither is Vietnam. Congress should reject this deal out of hand. We stand firmly against it, and we will continue our brand of activism against this and other egregiously bad ideas in American policy. Consider this message to be a call for coverage. If you can help to move the story along, please do so. You are free to republish, cross-post, or otherwise reuse this message commercially or otherwise free of charge; you need not call for permission, so "do it now!" Otherwise, please call your Congressman to protest against this. No PNTR for Vietnam, a regime with blood soaked hands that continues the torture and persecution even today! The sheer enormity of the human misery, being suffered in Vietnam, is unconscionable; as is the act of giving aid and comfort to such a despotic regime at the expense of American workers! For that matter, urge your Congressman to cancel and revoke PNTR from Communist China. We have recently learned that they keep Falun Gong prisoners for just-in-time execution to harvest their organs for profitable transplants. This human harvesting fully merits the revocation of Chinese PNTR, and counts as a genocidal crime against humanity! As this debate proceeds, watch for those spin doctors who defend the indefensible. There will be those who will once again chirp, Dont worry be happy about trade with Vietnam and China. It is as if they have looked at Vietnam and said, Hey youve got sweatshops? We want in to make use of them! And, they must be impressed with how China is monetizing Falun Gong persecution. There is a special place reserved for such spin doctors in the forthcoming book, Genocidal Correctness. (The GC in Americas spin class spin on behalf of communists, dictators, tyrants, and thugs.) Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan would have none of communist appeasement. In the interval since his leaving office, we regret that standards of Americas spin class have sunk to being bent, craven, and depraved on a routine basis with the trade issue. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - About the authors - John Patrick Kusumi's first two claims to fame were as the one time 18-year-old U.S. presidential candidate (1984), and then as the founding Director of the China Support Network (CSN, '89), the grass roots American response to China's atrocity of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Politically pacing the Chinese democracy movement, Kusumi and the CSN were ardent and vocal campaigners against PNTR for Communist China. Kusumi devoted a chapter of his book, Origins, to the faultiness of China trade, and another chapter to the China threat. See www.kusumi.com, and www.chinasupport.net. His next book will fault the U.S. news media for Genocidal Correctness. NoManZero is this decade's Rush, ZZ Top, and Pink Floyd all rolled into one. A modern rock band out of Connecticut, they responded to CSN by writing two songs, 'Remember Tiananmen Square' and 'Bye Bye CCP.' Discovered by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV), their music videos have been broadcast to 200 million Chinese viewers on four continents via the satellites used by NTDTV. NoManZero began rockin' for Vietnamese freedom by playing opposite the White House, at a June 2005 rally (with Wei Jingsheng) as Vietnam's prime minister visited the U.S.. See www.nomanzero.com. Their forthcoming album, Global Warning, is due out in July 2006. _________________________________________________________________ Dont just search. Find. 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