April 3, 2004, The World's Mightiest Military STILL Can't Find One Guy...
Fooled you: that guy is Radzan Karadzic-- remember him? This week's visit to Pravda gives us the not particularly widely reported account of a failed NATO attempt at Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to capture wanted war criminal and Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic. While Tim Bancroft-Hinchey likes to call the NATO guys "terrorists" (they injured a Russian Orthodox priest and his son in the raid), they are more akin to bumbling policemen. Too bumbing, apparently-- as this is not the first screw up in attempting to capture Karadzic.
How long have NATO troops been inserted in Bosnia to keep that two-countries- in-one (and three ethnic groups) from resuming its horrifying civil war? It seems like well over ten years-- and IIRC, the Srebrenica atrocity took place a long, long time ago (July, 1995). Let's just say we've been there a long time, and there seems little likelihood that either NATO or Russian troops are leaving any time soon. To the extent the Bosnian economy exists at all, it resembles the Palestinian economy: various corrupt apparatchiks figuring out how to siphon foreign aid money (not quite as bad as Arafat-- but the net result is not much better).
We won't even talk about Kosovo-- we've only been THERE just over five years, as we watch a reverse ethnic cleansing-- this time, the KLA terrorists whom we went in to help have turned on the local Serbs, driving them out. In the mean-time, a UN-sponsored (and NATO protected) prostitution ring seems to be thriving in Kosovo. I'm sure the drug and weapons trade are doing a brisk business as well, as the legitimate economy is... well, we're not quite sure there is any!
You understand, of course, that Bosnia and Herzegovina (its like Trinidad and Tobago, or Antigua and Barbuda-- the official name of the country is both of 'em, even if its usually the first name) and Kosovo represent ill-advised American adventures in nation-building and international do-gooding that the despised Democrats (especially Bill Clinton) were constantly getting us embroiled in. Candidate George W. Bush (and I'm starting to come 'round to the view of my favorite blogger that maybe this is the CORRECT position) railed against this kind of international intervention.
By contrast, Afghanistan and Iraq, where we have several orders of magnitude more troops and commitment than heretofore in Bosnia and Kosovo, as they were done by a Republican President, are simply the expressions of our American ideals of bringing freedom and democracy to oppressed peoples. Ummm..., in a pig's eye.
Afghanistan was easy: it was the literal definition of self-defense-- a limited police action. Of course, it was so limited that the very people we were actually trying to capture or otherwise incapacitate were not only allowed to escape (presumably with the help of our ally Pakistan), but I would actually bet that OBL himself was among the coupla thousand Taliban that the United States miilitary assisted in airlifting to Pakistan from Kunduz (the group, btw, included a coupla Pakistani generals, of course), Oh, and in the hunt for OBL himself, recall that we were using local mercenaries (isn't that what you call people you pay to do your soldiering?) to search caves for OBL near Tora Bora. No matter: at least Afghanistan was about rooting out people planning further attacks on American civilians-- and for the time being, we have disrupted AQ and the Taliban. (Interestingly, however, after upsetting Afghanistan's apple cart, as in Bosnia and Kosovo, we still have troops there to "nation-build"-- but they are there in the half-assed kind of way that will probably, of course, build more resentment than if... we just left.)
As to Iraq... well, as we all know, the mission was called "Operation Iraqi Freedom" because we went in solely to free the Iraqi people of the most ruthless tyrant in world history-- and for no other reason whatsoever. (Well, we KNOW it wasn't the WMD's that are neither in Iraq nor under the President's furniture, and the President's OWN terrorism advisor tells us that the Administration was well aware Iraq had NOTHING to do with Al Qaeda or 9-11--despite constantly trying to find such a link-- so it had to be about freeing those ungrateful Iraqis).
Well, I suspect it wasn't about that either. Someone really snarky MIGHT think it had to do with "finishing Dad's job"...
Of course, there's all that oil. Someone even MORE snarky might think that the Bush Administration concocted the Iraq adventure to serve its masters in Riyadh. If the President does not actually take orders from Saudi Prince Bandar (and I think he does), he certainly doesn't do anything important without consulting him.... The scenario I envision is that while Saddam's Iraq was undergoing UN inspections that were about to prove Iraq had no WMDs (and therefore that sanctions would be lifted), the House of Saud saw a real problem to its own regime itself hanging on by dental floss. An Iraq suddenly starting to pump a shitload of oil would literally be threatening Saudi petrol-hegemony. One would think that under THESE circumstances-- in order to stop the immediate threat of millions of barrels a day of new production hitting the world market, it would make PERFECT SENSE to start blowing the shit out of Iraq and setting in motion a wave of sabotage and a virtual civil war in Iraq. This would have the salutory effect of keeping Iraqi oil from world markets for years... if not decades.
No, of course, that didn't happen. (Heh.) Instead, the United States has once again undertaken the always successful policy of military-run nation building (again, on a scale we haven't undertaken since World War II) out of sheer altruism...
I DO hope Senator Kerry's campaign is smart enough to dig up all those old 2000 campaign speeches of Bush railing against nation-building... Read my lips-- no new nation building?
Comments
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Posted by Bob Kane at April 4, 2004 10:52 AM
I just finished Tim Judah's The Serbs, and I'm on to his book on Kosovo. For lighter fare I'm reading Wes Clark's memoir Waging Modern War. The Balkans appear to have been a case of collective insanity for the past 700 years, and Nurse Ratched we obviously ain't.
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Most of the time, I talk about the boss. But then there is the Boss.
The Boss of the Republican Party.
You would never guess who he is.
Poppy Bush? Dick Cheney? Kenny Boy?
The Koches? Karl Rove? The CIA?
No. No. No. No. No. No.
Funny thing is, you know him as the Boss. That's right, Bruce Springsteen is the "Boss" and the Boss of the Republican Party. He's been working on this his entire career.
If you look closely at his career, it all makes sense. Sure, he appears to be some sort of wacky liberal everyman, but don't be fooled. This guy's had Republican credentials since Day One.
It's like satan, the mafia, or Keyser Sosse, those who's existence are denied.
(Think "Brilliant Disguise").
Think about it. What party most honors those with a high school degree or less? Sure the boss went to college, like most "sons of," but it's not like he had to study.
What party's been waiving the flag since Abraham Lincoln's time? Who wrote "Born in the USA?"
What party was Ronald Reagan part of when he saluted the Boss? Did any Democratic Party member even mention the Boss? No. And did the Boss really seem that upset by the use of his name? No. This was during the time of his ascendency in the Party.
Who was the first major rock star to fire his supporting band (whose members weren't even getting equal shares), and to replace them with no-name scabs, a truly anti-union act? He only brought back the band because sales dropped, and he could get them for less. Also, it was the "E Street Shuffle" and not "E Street Strut," his "employees" were not allowed to walk proudly. Don't you wonder what the hell Max Weinberg is doing on a second-rate late nite show? Or why Steve Van Zandt is forced to ape a mafia role, or be a weekend DJ?
What party pushed the tax cuts through for the rich, so the Boss could have a few more dollars to put in his pocket? 99 channels still cost, even if there's nothing on. You need to hope for a tax cut to sustain your income when you're out of original material and forced to issue repackaged "best ofs."
Who was the guy that foreshadowed the boss (by about 30 years) by including African-Americans as apparent major role players in his band?
Who was the guy that foreshadowed the boss (this time, by about 20 years) by staging his own propaganda in hiring a then unknown Courteney Cox as some dancing star-struck fan in a music video? And for a lot cheaper than staging some fighter jet landing on an aircraft carrier.
Who mocks the working man with a song entitled "Ghost of Tom Joad?" In other words, the hard-working little guy is a thing of the past.
Who set the tone for kooky causes with the no-nukes (but never no-Nikes, or other child or low income labor) and the Brazilian rain forests (but never oil drilling in Alaska or in national parks)?
Look at the musicians he's sponsored. No real competition, just like Republican business policy. Southside Johnny? Gary US Bonds? He can't stand competition. Ever seen him have a warm up band?
Nebraska? The Boss was way ahead of everybody in seeing the importance of the heartland in the blue and the red zones. Also, he moved from Democratic New Jersey to more Republican-friendly California.
Candy's Room? A reworking of the original title: "Condi's Room."
Darkness on the Edge of Town? Sure, from the pollution being pumped into the air by relaxed environmental standards.
And finally, although there are many, many more examples, current Republican policies tend to lead to economic devastation. Been to Asbury Park lately?
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