Since our Commander-in-Grief has plunged his fist into the Balkan tar baby, there is a segment of the public that has been saying, "We have to support the troops now that we are there." Despite the overwhelming consensus that we don't belong in Kosovo, that the "unintended consequences" have been to expedite the objectives of Serbian leader Slobodan Miloslovic, we are now hearing the gaggle of peacenik, draft dodging '60s radicals screaming, "My country, right or wrong ... my country." Duh? Ambrose Bierce once observed, "The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff." And he never even heard of Bill Clinton or Mad Dog Madeline Not-so-bright.
Clinton has become a co-conspirator with the very enemy he claims to be attacking. Here's a quick reality check. There are NO good guys in white hats in Kosovo. Serbs AND Albanians have done, and continue to do bad stuff. This bloody ping pong match has been ongoing since the mid-1300s. I'll spare you the long history lesson, but here's a Cliff notes synopsis of the latest chapters: In the wake of centuries of religious wars, the Serbs (Christians) get a chunk of dirt. The ethnic Albanians (Muslims) keep getting pushed out of neighboring countries and emigrate to Kosovo. The flood of immigrants overshadows the Mexican to California exodus, and eventually numerically, the Albanians have superior numbers. They want THEIRS. Just like the Palestinians want THEIRS, and the Chechnyans want THEIRS, and the indigenous Indians in Chiapas want THEIRS.
However, the Serbs, although lacking numbers, have superior firepower (Strength through Superior Firepower). The Serbs want to push the Albanians into someone else's backyard. BUT THEY CAN'T. They try and try, and despite unbridled terror and force, they can't drive out the squatters. HOWEVER, thanks to the bumbling incompetence of American foreign policy wonks, Miloslovic's objective is achieved in a couple of weeks.
To compound the sin of the Clinton administration, the "unintended consequences" were forewarned. The CIA and the Pentagon both provided advice and counsel that could and should have prevented what could turn into World War III.
However, notwithstanding the lessons which SHOULD have been learned from failing to accept advice from experts, the arrogant, myopic bumblers again rejected the counsel of the professionals -- and now seem surprised.
John Ruskin once said, "Without seeking, truth cannot be known at all. It can neither be declared from pulpits, nor set down in articles, nor in any wise prepared and sold in packages ready for use. Truth must be ground for every man by itself out of it such, with such help as he can get, indeed, but not without stern labor of his own." Truth has become the first casualty of this NATO aggression. Once again, we see petty myopia obfuscating reality and common (regrettably all too uncommon) sense.
Seeking truth has become an almost impossible task. I saw a chilling headline recently that stated, "The Fourth Estate has become the Fifth Column." Mainstream media has become a co-conspirator with the administration to shape, mold, and spin information, which is designed to defend, rationalize and validate policy, and action which is bad, wrong, and probably criminal.
Now don't get me wrong, when it comes to military operations (valid military operations) I don't believe the public has a right to know everything. I was appalled, PO'd, and sickened when Navy Seals landed on a beach into a flood of CNN lights and cameras. I would have shot out the flipping lights and assaulted the dumb SOB who ever put MY troops at risk for a photo op.
Conversely, in this modern age of instant communication, commanders have the added challenge of denying combat intelligence to the bad guys. Hell, Saddam Hussein was sitting in his bunker watching CNN for contemporaneous combat intelligence. The grinding out of truth is becoming increasingly difficult. OUR media underreports bad news. Daily, (through the Internet) we are exposed to Greek newspapers overstating casualties. All the time, the elusive truth languishes somewhere between the yin and yang.
The tragedy of the Balkans is real. However, it has been, is, and will sadly continue. Regarding those who "don't want to be confused with facts which contradict their preconceived opinions," it should be noted that the Serbian/Ethnic Albanian conflict is in reality merely an extension of the Crusades. However, this time, the defensive NATO, has for the first time in its 50-year history, acted as the aggressor, AND has allied in a religious war against the Christians. Even Cecil Rhodes and Clinton's old Professor Carroll Quigley have to be rolling in their graves over this brain flatulence masquerading as policy.
To those metamorphosed doves of the '60s who are now the Clintonista hawks, I have more words than space. My heart breaks for the conflicted men and women in uniform compelled to duty/honor/country, by a civilian leadership with no concept of the troika.
Teddy Roosevelt once noted, "Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does NOT mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country." Did you get that? "It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extend that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country."
In 1984, Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger developed a series of "tests" to be satisfied before American troops would ever be sent into combat. Regardless of whatever you may or may not think of Cap Weinberger, look at his tenets:
Charles
Caleb Colon once noted "He that is good, will infallibly become better,
and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and
time are three things that never stand still." Gee ... does that make you
think of anybody in politics?