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Posted July 28, 2001
Suggest
Solutions
... Malic's columns,
on a region which needs decent reporting, fall short of doing anything
but pointing out the obvious. I also think that is a pointless exercise
to continually put down the governments of the region. Isn't it enough
that whatever they say or do they is labeled negatively in the international
press (and frequently at home too)? ... They are generally facing up
to very difficult circumstances, with the knowledge of previous precedents
in recent history.
I would like to see some commentary of a type that suggests solutions and doesn't just harp on in a manner that suggests that no-one has enough sense, but the writer themselves. Such an attitude is defeatist.
~ Angela Kurdziel
Nebojsa Malic replies:
Short answer: no, it is not enough. Long answer: Yes, I would love to praise a local Balkans government that harbors no illusions and has truly studied the precedents, acting accordingly and standing up for its people's interest. There is nothing praiseworthy, though, in betraying principles and sucking up to imperial powers, in vain hope that such powers might call off the marauders they have persistently helped (while denying doing so), or somehow obtain a conscience and change their strategic policy on a whim. So it seems what is obvious to us is not necessarily obvious to them. It needs to be repeated until someone gets it. The "destination" of Balkan Express has never been pure reporting, but rather pointing out the clear lessons of history and politics to people whose job is to protect lives, liberty and security of my former countrymen and neighbors. It is alarmingly urgent that these people and their elected governments grasp the enormity of danger hanging over their heads. This urgency leaves no room, or time, for coddling of those who cannot use their power wisely.
Milosevic Not At Rambouillet
In "Rambouillet Repeated?" Mr. Malic states that Slobodan Milosevic sat across the table from Hasim Thaci. That is wrong. At no time did Milosevic attend the Rambouillet sideshow. It was Serbian premier Milan Milutinovic who headed the delegation and signed the proffered documents.
~ Daniel Dostanic, Toronto
Nebojsa Malic replies:
This is correct. I slipped – Milosevic was never in Rambouillet. On the other hand, the Yugoslav delegation – composed of all ethnic groups and led by Serbian president Milan Milutinovic – did not sign the "agreement." Albright and company blamed Milosevic anyway, proving that this was the plan all along.
Letter Dissected
[Regarding Clancy Dalebout's letter, "Newspaper Article Dissected":]
I have read on your website the comment that Japan was the most civilized of nations and is being unfairly subjected to continued occupation by the United States. I ask you to consider the following statements contradicting your views.
In 1995 China reminded Japanese Prime Minister Murayama that China held Japan responsible for deaths of 35 million Chinese. (See the New York Times, May 7, 1995, page E3) A Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter revised that number down to 10 million. (See NYT, May 21, 1995, p4.) No letters were printed questioning the accounting of the missing 25 million lives. Please observe that this number was greater than 4 times the number of Jews claimed killed by the Nazis. To challenge one of those deaths brings the American thought police on your head.
Some 6 months after the rape of Nanking and the deaths of 300,000 Chinese – more than 3 times the number of American dead in what we think of 45 months of hard combat – Mao discoursed to Marine General Evans Carlson on American greed in supplying Japanese. (See Michael Blankfort, The Big Yankee: The Life of Carlson of the Raiders, pp237-41 – Little, Brown, 1947.) America has forgotten our complicity in deaths of Chinese. I am positive the Chinese have not.
Mr. Clancy Dalebout confused the warlord Tojo of World War II with Admiral Togo who destroyed the Russian fleet almost 40 years before. Admiral Togo committed seppuku after his Emperor Meiji died in 1912.
It should be noted that the Japanese started the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 with no declaration of war. Teddy Roosevelt exulted on Japanese duplicity in assaulting Russia without warning in 1904. (See Congressional Record, p3334, April 11, 1947 – inserted by Senator Thomas of Utah and extracted from Zabriskie's American-Russian Rivalry in the Far East, 1895- 1914.)
The New York Times congratulated the Japanese on their sneak attack at Port Arthur and declared going to war with a declaration had gone out of fashion and dismissed this courtesy as irrelevant. (See NYT, February 13, 1904, p8 – editorial page.) Some 37 years later the reaction was different.
Within a half-century Japan attacked all 5 founding members of the United Nations Security Council – Great Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States – without declaring war. Yet Americans have persisted in thinking Pearl Harbor was treachery unique in world history.