| Montréal,
le 1er mai 1999 |
Numéro
36
|
(page 6) |
page précédente
Vos
commentaires
|
|
MUSINGS BY MADDOCKS
MR MILLOFFOSOFFEFFIC,
THE SIBERIAN LEADER
by Ralph Maddocks
There are undoubted ironies in connection with the NATO war in Yugoslavia.
Firstly, we have an American President whose warlike tendencies found expression
during the Vietnam affair when he succeeded in avoiding totally any involvement
in that conflict, apart from mild protestation. Secondly, we see various
British politicians trying to emulate Maggie Thatcher by attempting to
show themselves to be as warlike as she appeared when she presided over
the unpleasantness in the Falklands in 1982, a war in which British territory
had, after all, been invaded. |
|
Ground level knowledge
This war which seems to meet none of the usual criteria such as vital strategic
interest, unity of national will, willingness to commit enough force to
win, clearly defined objectives etc. may well drag on interminably. The
only conceivable strategic interest, at least from the point of view of
the mining companies, is the enormous mineral wealth in the Northern part
of Kosovo. The national will of many NATO partners is hardly united. There
is a continually expressed unwillingness to commit ground forces and I
have yet to see or hear what the objectives are; except an intermittent
and frequently expressed wish to make Milosevic come back to the bargaining
table, or accept the so-called Rambouillet agreement.
The appalling atrocities and the concomitant refugee problem should surely
have been foreseen as a result of starting to bomb Kosovo. Such things
had happened before and the bombing has simply provided additional cover
for killing people and handed a unique propaganda advantage to Milosevic.
Most inhabitants of North America may perhaps be forgiven for knowing little
about Kosovo and its tumultuous history, or even for not knowing where
it is. Europeans, being somewhat closer geographically, ought to be a little
bit better informed. Listening to some of their politicians would seem
to refute this argument.
The level of knowledge possessed by some of their commentators and politicians
is often hilariously amusing and hardly attests to the quality of the educations
they have received. Britain's Deputy Prime Minister is often denouncing
« Mr Milloffosoffeffic », but obviously
has difficulty pronouncing him. The UK Foreign Minister, whose extramarital
philandering occupied the attentions of much of the British press for long
enough, has offered his opinion that Kosovo is being ravaged by Milosevic's
« Siberian forces ». Mr Cook also
reported that the Serbs executed 20 Albanian teachers in front of their
pupils in a place called Goden. Britain's National Union of Teachers, and
its Canadian equivalent, must be salivating over a place that has such
a pupil/teacher ratio; an achievement far beyond their own wildest fantasies.
The village of Goden had apparently just 200 inhabitants in total!
Listening to Tony Blair telling the UK Parliament that the war is being
fought « for a moral purpose as much as a strategic
interest » made one wonder what moral purpose it was
that led him to become the first Labour Party Prime Minister to lead his
country into a war. One wonders if this purpose has to do with hapless
Kosovars or more to do with domestic politics. Mr Blair seems to be having
problems convincing his electorate to accept some of the domestic matters
he wishes to foist upon them. Matters varying from genetic engineering
and national DNA registers to please the policemen, through Welsh devolution
(who show little or no interest in it), to road building to reduce traffic
congestion. A little war can be relied upon to distract the electorate
quite nicely.
The horror of war
Of course it is well known that, as someone opined, the first casualty
of war is truth. If proof of this is needed then reading much of the information
emanating from the Serbs defies belief. Conducting a propaganda war against
a totalitarian state which tightly controls all of its media is difficult,
if not impossible, to win. So far as the Serbs themselves are concerned
we haven't won this part of the war. Finally, after over three weeks, a
Cruise missile was dispatched to remove the main television station in
Belgrade. The initially expressed concept was that this is a war against
Milosevic and not the Serbian people. The sight of the spokesmen contorting
themselves into pretzels to explain that they have no quarrel with the
Serbian people but did not attempt to bomb an alleged Milosevic palace
until after three weeks, stretches credulity. That Mr Milosevic's main
home contains a $4 million painting may have had something
to do with it.
Those of us born in the first half of this century well know that the bombing
of civilians, even by accident, simply hardens their will to resist. The
Nazis discovered this in 1941 and the British discovered it by 1944 after
leveling places like Cologne, Hamburg and Dresden. With the possible exception
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Americans were no more successful doing
this in Vietnam. The Persian Gulf War bombing, for all its appearance of
surgical precision bombing, didn't end the occupation of Kuwait; ground
forces did. Massive ground forces on a largely flat battlefield at that.
Not an insufficiently small force in some of the most mountainous terrain
in Europe, terrain which tied down over twenty German divisions during
much of the Second World War. To assemble a force of sufficient size to
deal with the Serbian army, or its remnants, would likely take at least
60 to 90 days if one is to judge by the time it took to start the Gulf
War.
President Clinton, indulging in his usual verbal obfuscation, has claimed
that he does not intend to put US troops into Kosovo to fight a war and
would not send his forces into a hostile environment. Clinton also said
that he would guarantee Kosovar security but that US troops would not fight
for Kosovar independence and they would not create a protected enclave
for the Kosovars. When it was pointed out that this amounted to a contradiction,
Clinton then said that he meant that the Kosovars were « entitled
» to security. A new age socialist word if ever there was
one. Then the spin doctors shifted a little and said that US troops could
be sent to a « permissive » environment. It was
assumed that this meant that Milosevic would cave in to the bombing and
« permit » NATO troops to enter Kosovo. Now, seeming
to accept that Milosevic may never yield to the bombing, they could mean
that the degradation of Serb military assets will create a «
permissive » environment. All this from the man who, about
a year ago, said that he had not had an affair with Monica Lewinsky.
The prosecution of the air war, leaving aside any question of morality
or utility, has left a great deal to be desired. Bombing empty buildings
and tobacco factories in Belgrade may have kept the citizens awake and
unable to smoke, but it is hardly degrading military capability. It was
quite late in the day that bridges, oil storage and power stations were
attacked although the weather may undoubtedly have played an important
role. I don't know how many bridges there are in the country but destroying
them all couldn't have taken more than three or four days of determined
effort. The US Defence Secretary even claimed in one TV appearance that
NATO is winning the bombing campaign because Milosevic is reinforcing his
troops in Kosovo! The mental gymnastics required to absorb this statement
are beyond me.
There has lately been what could be interpreted as a break in the Milosevic
facade, a government official has suggested that the Serbian people be
told the truth about what is happening. Whether he will keep his head after
this unusual display of candour is not known as this is written, but it
may be the time to start assembling the ground forces. Ground troops, at
least those from the US volunteer army, are not likely to be sent into
harm's way until we know exactly how many sons of senators and congressmen
and women are presently serving in the infantry!
Articles précédents
de Ralph Maddocks |
|
