Bosnia and American Exceptionalism

When it announced that it was giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama last month, the Nobel Committee praised the president for his efforts on climate change. It also said in its citation that, with Mr. Obama now in office, a "multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position" and "dialogue and negotiations" are the preferred instruments for conflict resolution.

This commendation raises concerns for many observers, including me, who believe in American exceptionalism, and who agree with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that we are the "indispensable nation." Preserving and defending our values at home and promoting them abroad are essential to protecting our national interests. Others—particularly opponents of the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq—disagree and welcome a correction to what they perceive as the zeal and excesses of the Bush administration.

Regardless of where you stand, it should be clear that multilateralism isn't always the best approach and that the idea that the United States is merely one among many equal nations doesn't take into account the unique role the U.S. can play in world affairs.

Nowhere is this clearer than in Bosnia, where, in the early 1990s, a country and its people were under attack and on the brink of destruction. As the situation deteriorated, the U.S. demurred, and Europe took ownership of the crisis. Speaking for the European Community, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jacques Poos famously declared, "The hour of Europe has dawned." Unfortunately, that was an hour of passivity and noninterventionism, and it turned into years of carnage and the worst European genocide since World War II. The slaughter ended only when the U.S. led a NATO military campaign to halt the violence.

The following two letters in response to Mr. Dole’s piece were written by Julia Gorin and Stella Jatras, respectively, and published in “Letters to the Editor” at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703740004574513952550860792.html on November 9, 2009:

FROM JULIA GORIN:

Bob Dole criticizes President Barack Obama (”Bosnia and American Exceptionalism,” op-ed, Oct. 23) for not demonstrating U.S. “leadership” in Bosnia—namely, urging greater government centralization in the 44% Muslim country, and strong-arming those “recalcitrant” Serbs. For a snapshot of the Bosnia that Mr. Dole hopes American leadership has created, he should look at Sarajevo, where the long tradition of Grandfather Frost (secular Santa) was recently banned from schools, and exclusively Islamic education introduced.

The Dayton accords that Mr. Dole parrots as bringing peace achieved the same result the 1992 Lisbon Agreement was about to, without bloodshed.

Warning against creating “monoethnic conclaves,” Mr. Dole writes that “promoting [our values] abroad [is] essential.” This, after leading the way to a purified second Albanian state, where after our intervention even the most basic American value—rule of law—doesn’t exist. Instead, the internationals there are being corrupted or blackmailed into falling in line with the thugocracy we bolstered.

We stoked and joined three aggressive wars against a natural post-Cold War ally, indeed our ally from two world wars, with one goal being to reassure the Muslim world after Desert Storm. Yugoslavia had been the most Western-facing, Hollywood-devouring country in the Communist bloc next to Poland, and it was useful to us against Soviet Russia. Afterwards, it went on the chopping block.

The Balkans call precisely for the “multilateralism” and “dialogue” that Mr. Dole urges President Obama against. Mr. Obama is actually listening to the concerns of Serbs sharing power with a Muslim majority. Naturally, Mr. Dole calls this unusual nonhostility “empowering the Serb entity.”

Understandably, like the other architects of our “successes” in Bosnia and Kosovo, Bob Dole doesn’t want to see the charade fall apart.

Julia Gorin

_________________

FROM STELLA JATRAS:

I remind Mr. Dole of the quote by former Bosnian President, Alija Izetbegovic taken from his 1970 Islamic Declaration, that “There can be no peace or coexistence between Islamic faith and non-Islamic faith political institutions. The Islamic movement must and can take place as soon as it is morally and numerically strong enough, not only to destroy the non-Islamic one, but to build up a new Islamic one.”

Stella L. Jatras

*****

As can be correctly presumed, “editing” was done on the “Letters to the Editor” originally submitted by Stella Jatras. “Editing” letters to the editor is a normal process - obviously, if something is going to be published, editing is inevitable, regardless of the subject matter. In some instances, though, what is “taken out” is just as significant or more so than what is “left in”. Below is the “original” ‘Letter to the Editor’ submitted by Stella Jatras to the Wall Street Journal in response to the Bob Dole piece “Bosnia and American Exceptionalism”. I’ll repeat the “edited” version that was actually published below it, just for fun.

Stella Jatras has posted on “Free Republic” in the past and she has always been a fantastic spokesman for the truth.

The Original, Unedited version:

Wall Street Journal

Letter to the editor(s)

28 October 2009

Regarding Bob Dole’s touching concern for Bosnia’s impending “menace,” (27 Oct), perhaps Mr. Dole should consider that at one time Yugoslavia was a multi-national, multi-cultural and multi-religious state until the West, primarily the Clinton administration, decided to stop the genocide, except there was no genocide. As John Ranz, Chairman of Survivors of Buchenwald Concentration Camp, USA, put it, “The gigantic campaign to brainwash America by our media against the Serbian people is just incredible, with its daily dose of one-sided information and outright lies.”

In a gross display of racism, then Senator Joe Biden declared in 1999 that “all Serbs should be placed in Nazi-style concentration camps.” Incredibly, there was no outrage nor condemnation from anyone in Congress for his highly insensitive remarks and, as though to flaunt his “in-your-face” arrogance, in May of 2009 V.P. Biden had the audacity to return to Serbia as though to further humiliate the Serbian people.

I remind Mr. Dole of the quote by former Bosnian President, Alija Izetbegovic taken from his 1970 Islamic Declaration, that “There can be no peace or coexistence between Islamic faith and non-Islamic faith political institution...The Islamic movement must and can take place as soon as it is morally and numerically strong enough, not only to destroy the non-Islamic one, but to build up a new Islamic one.”

Mission accomplished!

Stella L. Jatras

________________

The “Edited”, published version of the Jatras letter on November 9, 2009 at:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703740004574513952550860792.html

Stella L. Jatras

*****

The following is a letter submitted to the Wall Street Journal by William “Bill” Dorich:

Dear Editor:

Dehumanizing and perpetrating collective guilt against the entire Serbian nation was an ugly process at which Senator Robert Dole excelled. Dole began his ugly Serb bashing agenda early in the secret dismemberment plans for former Yugoslavia.

In 1990, before any Civil War in the Balkans, Dole introduced a vindictive piece of legislation. Just 23 line long and buried in the Foreign Appropriations Bill #101-513, this legislation cut all loan guarantees and aid to Yugoslavia when that nation was $31 billion in debt. This was a direct violation of the Helsinki Act which forbids “Any act of economic or other coercion...” Senator Dole’s bill, shockingly allowed continued U.S. financial aid to be directed to 6 Yugoslav republics, provided that these republics held “democratic” elections within 6 months. This was an outrageous violation of the sovereignty of Yugoslavia ignored by the United Nations and the media which created the environment for political obstructionism within the Yugoslav government that led to these Civil Wars that killed 100,000 victims on all sides.

During his bid for the presidency, Dole received over one million dollars from an Albanian organization in New York. He visited Kosovo where he gave Serbian Orthodox priests and their Bishop just 15 minutes to present the Serbian side of the conflict, then he gave the Albanians the entire afternoon to demonize the Serbs. When Elizabeth Dole took over the American Red Cross she refused to supply blood and medical supplies to Serbian victims claiming them as “aggressors” and for the first time in Red Cross history she turned this humanitarian organization into a weapon of war.

Robert and Elizabeth Dole should be standing in the dock at The Hague for their crimes against humanity.

William Dorich
Los Angeles, CA

The writer is the author of 5 books on Balkan history and music including his 1992 book, Kosovo, the first book published in the U.S. on this region of the world.

******

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.