David Cay Johnston: “I think the answer to my question is--and I think the Senator was honest in saying--that Aung San Suu Kyi has neither…”

“I think the answer to my question is--and I think the Senator was honest in saying--that Aung San Suu Kyi has neither seen nor endorsed this language, that she in fact endorsed sanctions, as the Senator from Maine has in his amendment. It is sanctions. One of the central questions is this. I made up a little poem. I am not as good at poetry as the Senator from Maine is, but my little poem is this: A sanction will not a sanction be if it hurts the sanctioner and not the sanctionee. What that means is if all you do is cost American jobs and influence by substituting, for Unocal, Total, a French company, when Unocal is trying its best to influence the SLORC, influence the government, doing what it can, and all you are doing is getting the Americans out and putting in the French, getting the Americans out and putting in the South Koreans, then I submit that is no sanction at all. Now, we are told by my friend from Kentucky that there is precedent for this because we have taken unilateral sanctions against Iran and Libya and Cuba. First of all, I think these three countries are greatly distinguishable, the first two practicing terrorism all around the world, and in the case of Cuba, shooting down American planes over international airspace. Whatever else you may say about Burma, they do not practice state terrorism, nor do they threaten their neighbors.”