re american jewish congress open letter to clinton in article c vbnv cj blaze cs jhu edu arromdee jyusenkyou cs jhu edu ken arromdee writes in article apr vxcrna cern ch casper vxcrna cern ch casper davi ppe writes i complained about the us taking the point in bosnia when the europeans should be doing it ken says the bosnians are morally superior to the serbians this implies both sides are equal true it may sometimes be difficult or impossible to determine which side is the victim but that does not mean that victims do not exist yes victims exist there are a staggering number of victims in the world and more each day i think on balance intervention would create more victims including american ones since the first responsibility of the us government is to protect americans i think they serve that role best by staying away from bosnia and other regional conflicts would you in wwii have said that there were atrocities on the sides of both the jews and the germans of course not the jews were not trying to carve a territory out of germany either and except for small scale resistance and a few larger uprisings did not have an army or a government these people have been butchering each other for centuries when one side wins and gets what it wants it will stop yes but both sides want different things the muslims chiefly want to not be ethnic cleansed the serbians want to ethnic cleanse the muslims it is indeed true that each side will stop when it gets what it wants but the things that the two sides want are not equivalent i see the pattern of atrocities as a fairly often practiced tactic of a colonizing power driving away and or eliminating the population of an area they want to control the us tried basically that in vietnam the iraqis in kuwait the israelis in palestine south africa etc etc etc it sucks it s ugly and it s saddening but it is not genocide it is not my impression that the serbs want to eliminate every muslim in yugoslavia i still say the bosnians are getting their asses kicked they should surrender and evacuate the areas they can t hold i said the fixation on bosnia is due to it being in a european country rather than the third world i recall before we did anything for somalia apparent left wingers saying that the reason everyone was more willing to send troops to bosnia than to somalia was because the somalis are third worlders who americans consider unworthy of help they suddenly shut up when the us decided to send troops to the opposite place than that predicted by the theory i am a staunch republican btw the irony of arguing against military intervention with arguments based on vietnam has not escaped me i was opposed to us intervention in somalia for the same reasons although clearly it was not nearly as risky for that matter this theory of yours suggests that americans should want to help the serbs after all they re christian and the muslims are not if the desire to intervene in bosnia is based on racism against people that are less like us why does everyone want to help the side that is less like us especially if both of the sides are equal as you seem to think well one thing you have to remember is the press likes a good story good for business don t you know and btw not everyone wants to help the side that is less like us i never said the two sides were morally equivalent i said neither one is innocent there are just too many good reasons to stay away the europeans are perfectly able to deal with this dispute on their borders in any way we do it put another way we have no assistance to offer the europeans which they do not already possess themselves it is not good to promote the idea in anyone s mind that the united states is responsible for cleaning up every bloody mess in the world clinton is not the man to lead this country into a military adventure full stop it is by no means clear what intervention would accomplish nor that it would necessarily help the victims it is not clear what the goal is and at what point any commitment could be ended
