2007-06-12
Random Wars
I ran across a video made by Norwegian soldiers in Kosovo, which you can see here. It's absolutely brilliant. You can see the lyrics here. The lyrics are actually from an anti-war American, which you can see here.
Anyway, the political side is basically complaining that the US keeps getting involved in wars, seemingly at random. It's not random. If an opportunity to extend the free world arises, we will take it if it doesn't jeapordize anything else. It's not clearcut though. E.g. bombing Serbia had the potential to spook Russia into making a grab for the ex-USSR territories, especially the Baltics who were not yet secured in NATO. As for why nothing was done in Rwanda? What exactly could be done? It was civilians going on a rampage. How do you stop racist civilians? Stamping out racism in civilians is not as simple as stamping out a racist government.
But yeah, it must be frustrating for naturally isolationist Americans to hear with regular monotony "WHO are we bombing this time?". It's as if their country exists just to bomb random people. They probably ask all the time "Why does it have to be US???". That is why more than anything else we need a non-US NGO to explain to the US that they are doing the right thing, and they need to keep going. Unfortunately the pro-freedom people don't seem to be very well organized. Luckily we're getting our policy implemented despite that.
As for the soldiers, they're probably bemused by what they're being asked to do. They don't understand any more than anyone else the seemingly random targetting and trying to find some way of convincing them that Serbia was a threat to the US and needed to be taken out as per what militaries are normally used for. The conservatives are also frustrated. They see US troops being used in Haiti and they know that there's no US national interest at stake there. That's why I'm a neocon, not a conservative. I am totally against that logic, and totally against Republicans who opposed the Kosovo war.
I was in Europe (can't remember which country, although UK is the most likely) when Kosovo was being bombed, and I can remember seeing some Serbs protesting, complete with "target" stickers on their shirts, and I went to have a close look at what total arseholes looked like close up. It was unfathomable to me how anyone could oppose the bombing of a dictator who was abusing human rights. It wasn't until 2004-09-11 that I finally figured out all the in-group/out-groups at play that were causing this phenomenon. I could never have understood the Serbs without first understanding the Iraqis, via the Iraqi blogs and via the US doing some very precise things, such as the pullback in Fallujah and letting Sadr go mad with his goon squad. Basically Kosovo taught us next to nothing. We already know we can bomb people and force them to do something. What we didn't know is why we needed to bomb them in the first place. Or why we needed to arrest Australian rapists, etc etc. All problems were eventually solved. In message 666. The complete solution.
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Anyway, the political side is basically complaining that the US keeps getting involved in wars, seemingly at random. It's not random. If an opportunity to extend the free world arises, we will take it if it doesn't jeapordize anything else. It's not clearcut though. E.g. bombing Serbia had the potential to spook Russia into making a grab for the ex-USSR territories, especially the Baltics who were not yet secured in NATO. As for why nothing was done in Rwanda? What exactly could be done? It was civilians going on a rampage. How do you stop racist civilians? Stamping out racism in civilians is not as simple as stamping out a racist government.
But yeah, it must be frustrating for naturally isolationist Americans to hear with regular monotony "WHO are we bombing this time?". It's as if their country exists just to bomb random people. They probably ask all the time "Why does it have to be US???". That is why more than anything else we need a non-US NGO to explain to the US that they are doing the right thing, and they need to keep going. Unfortunately the pro-freedom people don't seem to be very well organized. Luckily we're getting our policy implemented despite that.
As for the soldiers, they're probably bemused by what they're being asked to do. They don't understand any more than anyone else the seemingly random targetting and trying to find some way of convincing them that Serbia was a threat to the US and needed to be taken out as per what militaries are normally used for. The conservatives are also frustrated. They see US troops being used in Haiti and they know that there's no US national interest at stake there. That's why I'm a neocon, not a conservative. I am totally against that logic, and totally against Republicans who opposed the Kosovo war.
I was in Europe (can't remember which country, although UK is the most likely) when Kosovo was being bombed, and I can remember seeing some Serbs protesting, complete with "target" stickers on their shirts, and I went to have a close look at what total arseholes looked like close up. It was unfathomable to me how anyone could oppose the bombing of a dictator who was abusing human rights. It wasn't until 2004-09-11 that I finally figured out all the in-group/out-groups at play that were causing this phenomenon. I could never have understood the Serbs without first understanding the Iraqis, via the Iraqi blogs and via the US doing some very precise things, such as the pullback in Fallujah and letting Sadr go mad with his goon squad. Basically Kosovo taught us next to nothing. We already know we can bomb people and force them to do something. What we didn't know is why we needed to bomb them in the first place. Or why we needed to arrest Australian rapists, etc etc. All problems were eventually solved. In message 666. The complete solution.
# posted by Paul Edwards @ 21:43 
