The Midwest Conservative Journal is smoking on Iraq today. The only thing I have to add takes off from the remarks of John Howard (Australia’s Prime Minister for those of us who aren’t Al Gore) who said NATO’s attack on Serbian troops in Kosovo showed that UN approval was not a necessity for Allied troops to begin a military attack:
“Look at Kosovo. There was no UN resolution on Kosovo,” he said. “I don’t remember too many people at the time saying that’s outrageous. I don’t remember it. I’m not saying Kosovo is a model for what might happen here. I’m not suggesting that. I’m using that as illustration that people who look for a black and white outcome from the UN could be mistaken. In the end we could have a grey outcome from the UN and you then have to make a judgment on merits.”
Let me go a little bit further. On Kosovo, not only was there no U.N. resolution, there was no congressional authorization. The short history was there was a cold civil war in Kosovo, with atrocities being committed by both Albanians and Serbians – in fact it was the Albanians in Kosovo who originated the use of rape as a means of war in the modern Balkans, and you were more likely to be victimized as a Serb than an Albanian in Kosovo. President Clinton demanded that Yugoslavia sign the Rambouillet Accord or else, with a deadline after which force would be used. This is typically known as issuing an ultimatum. We knew Yugoslavia wouldn’t, couldn’t accept this Accord — Kosovo was not only going to be autonomous, it was going to be under NATO control and occupation, and under appendix B Yugoslavia itself could be occupied by NATO. Didn’t anybody remember that WWI started with an ultimatum issued to Serbia – again one that couldn’t be accepted? So when the deadline passed, NATO ministers voted for war, and President Clinton ordered bombing to commence, without any congressional debate or vote. That’s right the United States of America went to war, not on a U.N. resolution, not on a Congressional Declaration of War, but on the vote of NATO. Where were the cries of give diplomacy a chance?
And did we confine ourselves to military targets? No. Not only did we bomb civilian infrastructure – power plants, bridges, car factories, that could be argued were valid because of their use to the military, we bombed a Serbian TV studio because we didn’t like what they were saying on it. We targeted and killed civilians not because of their possible military value, but because we didn’t like their version of events. Where was the outcry? What would have happened if in the Gulf War we would have targeted Peter Arnett (like blowing up his hotel room at night) because we didn’t like how the Iraqi’s were using him for propaganda purposes? Don’t think too hard about that, instead, wonder why when the litany of why America is considered an arrogant cowboy country, we hear about Kyoto and not Kosovo.
So please, don’t tell me that Bush is a warmonger, or that an attack on Iraq without UN approval is illegal unless you said the same thing about Clinton and Kosovo.
