Monday, March 13, 2006
Milosevic
We haven't seen much ink spilled over the disgraced Serb leader's recent death of a presumed heart attack, in prison, in the midst of his War Crimes Tribunal. It is worth a moment, it seems to me, to recount if only briefly his history, as this very recent bit of history is not a bad analog for current events.
Milosevic's ascent to the Serbian Presidency served eventually to unleash a Civil War which dissolved Yugoslavia. First a war between Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats, eventually the region's Muslims also became embroiled in what became a brutal, even genocidal conflict. Here in her backyard, not 50 years after the slaughter of WWII, once again Europe bore witness to indiscriminate death and carnage -- some 250,000 dead.
Europe was paralyzed, unable to act to stop the slaughter. The UN was present at the genocide of 7,000 men and boys at Srebrenica, and didn't stop it. The US acted unilaterally to reverse the Serbian tide, mostly by aerial assault, and eventually the Serbian leader and his ethnic allies in Bosnia were stopped and brought to account.
The Milosevic and Serbian saga played out in between our 2 Iraqi Wars. Had Milosevic been given the time and maneuvering room, he certainly could have become Saddam's genocidal equal. That he did not is a testament to the use of unilateral American power -- not diplomacy, not Europe, not Yeltsin, Chirac or Schroeder or anybody else. American power, American people and American commitment did away with a genocidal maniac in Europe.
In the Middle East, the same story is playing out with Saddam and Iraq. It should have happened before Slobo, but it happened after. It is easy to blame the Bush I administration for a failure here. But if one must be fair in the analysis, 1991 was vastly different than 1995 and 2003. The further removed we were from the Cold War, the more capable the US became to act against rogue regimes. And 9/11 provided a motivator to act aggressively in the Middle East.
The American action in the Balkans in the mid 90's may disappear quietly into history as something of small consequence (almost as Slobo's recent demise as treated by the MSM). But it was of a piece with the evolution of American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.
Slobo will not be missed.
Milosevic's ascent to the Serbian Presidency served eventually to unleash a Civil War which dissolved Yugoslavia. First a war between Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats, eventually the region's Muslims also became embroiled in what became a brutal, even genocidal conflict. Here in her backyard, not 50 years after the slaughter of WWII, once again Europe bore witness to indiscriminate death and carnage -- some 250,000 dead.
Europe was paralyzed, unable to act to stop the slaughter. The UN was present at the genocide of 7,000 men and boys at Srebrenica, and didn't stop it. The US acted unilaterally to reverse the Serbian tide, mostly by aerial assault, and eventually the Serbian leader and his ethnic allies in Bosnia were stopped and brought to account.
The Milosevic and Serbian saga played out in between our 2 Iraqi Wars. Had Milosevic been given the time and maneuvering room, he certainly could have become Saddam's genocidal equal. That he did not is a testament to the use of unilateral American power -- not diplomacy, not Europe, not Yeltsin, Chirac or Schroeder or anybody else. American power, American people and American commitment did away with a genocidal maniac in Europe.
In the Middle East, the same story is playing out with Saddam and Iraq. It should have happened before Slobo, but it happened after. It is easy to blame the Bush I administration for a failure here. But if one must be fair in the analysis, 1991 was vastly different than 1995 and 2003. The further removed we were from the Cold War, the more capable the US became to act against rogue regimes. And 9/11 provided a motivator to act aggressively in the Middle East.
The American action in the Balkans in the mid 90's may disappear quietly into history as something of small consequence (almost as Slobo's recent demise as treated by the MSM). But it was of a piece with the evolution of American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.
Slobo will not be missed.
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