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Posted August 20, 2001
Only Regret
My
only regret about Nebojsa
Malic's articles is that they are not printed on the front pages
of all major western newspapers. What has been happening over the past
six months in Macedonia is so unjust, it is almost beyond words. But
of course, you'd never know this if CNN, the New York Times or
the BBC is all the news you get. However, I know because I was just
there. I was there when the US troops came in and escorted 400 terrorists,
their US military advisors and all of their weapons out of Arachinovo
to safety, after being cornered by the Macedonian Army. Almost as bizarre
as this act of aggression against Macedonia was the way in which these
spineless, consensus-building NATO/EU/US bureaucrats tried to explain
what had happened. Of course, since "might makes right," they
didn't really have to answer for their actions.
I'd like to address one point Mr. Malic made, that being Macedonia's
regrettable decision to assist in NATO's bombing of Serbia a few years
ago. I have a strong suspicion that Macedonia's hands were tied and
it was forced into acting as a staging ground against its traditional
ally. Ninety-nine percent of ethnic Macedonians were against NATO's
war, as were Greeks, but both governments were at the mercy of the US.
("Let us bomb, or else.") Ukraine's military support of Macedonia
met the same fate.
The only hope for the Macedonian people now is that the UCK turns their weapons on the NATO troops who will soon be deployed to collect them. But this is wishful thinking since NATO, aware of the brutal monster it created in the UCK, has purposely done everything it can to avoid the possibility of confrontation.
Macedonia
did what the West told it to do; it allowed NATO troops to transport
its weapons to Kosovo as NATO waged war on her traditional ally and
main trading partner. It took in 300,000 Kosovo refugees when it didn't
have the means to do so. It helped to rig elections, ensuring that a
"pro-western" government would be in charge – the same government
now being accused of being "hard-line." And it did all these
things with assurances that the west would soon reward it. Now it is
likely to enter a long and bloody war that will forever ruin the country,
having been fooled by promises that never materialized.
~
Alex Gorsevski
Nebojsa Malic replies:
It is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all that countries such as Macedonia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and now even Yugoslavia kowtow to the might of the Empire believing that to be their only choice. This environment of fear and servility is what makes the Empire so successful, since it lacks courage and brute force to conquer the world on its own. Once the nations in its path understand this, perhaps then they can finally begin to fight back. Courage is the first step towards liberty.
War Crimes, Etc.
[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of August 8, "Hiroshima Mon Amour":]
Great
article about Hiroshima. I agree with you wholeheartedly, but the last
paragraph was somewhat too partial to Japan, forgetting their war crimes,
etc.
~ J. Amaral, Brazil
Great Work
[Regarding
Jon Basil Utley's "American
Interventionism and the Terrorist Threat" (August 8):]
...Your essay, which I read as featured on Antiwar.com, was one of the best of yours, or of any, I've seen on U. S. foreign policy in quite a long time. Do keep up your great work.
Interventionist Follies
Regarding R.M. Russon's [letter of August 14,] "Terms of Surrender":
Mr. Russon is amazed that the writers for Antiwar.com could possibly oppose the United States in its continuing war on Iraq. Reduce Iraq to rubble, poison their water supplies, not let in medical supplies, kill a few thousand women and children, not to mention men defending their country, and fly sortie after sortie over the country watching, watching, watching, then bombing, bombing, bombing. These are the just consequences of Iraq's refusal to abide by the surrender "agreement."
Mr. Russon, you are echoing the words of the dictators you support. You want a world at the beck and call of the Imperial American President, using his U.S. and UN soldiers to control every inch of territory it can possibly control.... That's why your grand masters in D.C. work to take over countries with weak militaries, like the Balkan countries, and Iraq. In the Balkans it was for humanitarian reasons; in Iraq it was to "defend" Kuwait. Funny, where was your army to defend Afghanistan, or Nepal, or Tibet, or Chechnya? Could it be that your rulers become a bit chicken-hearted when it comes to facing a real power?
At some point, Mr. Russon, you and your brethren must ask yourselves: Would you go to Iraq, or Kosovo, or Bosnia to carry out the dictates of your rulers? Would you send your children on such missions? If your answers are yes, then please take your rulers with you and leave the rest of us alone so we and our families do not have to pay for, or die for, your interventionist follies.
The Curse of Megalomania
Being attacked by M. Conklin ["Occupation of Japan Inexcusable"] on August 3 for things I did not write was somewhat startling. My statement that Japan merely attacked China, Russia, France, Great Britain and the United States within half a century with no declaration of war on her part has historical validity. Conklin believes I implied the Japanese might do it again against us "western powers." As well they may, but I do not regard China as a western power.
Conklin accused me of perhaps being somewhat of a racist. This accusation to Conklin must be a substitute for his inability to throw manhole covers at me. To many Americans no more devastating charge can be made. I demur.
James Reston, when accompanying President Nixon to Peking, was aghast when he found that Chou En Lai harbored ill feelings towards the Japanese. Chou replied that China had suffered greatly from the Japanese while in comparison in both World Wars the United States had suffered very little. This response caused Reston, the most influential newspaperman of his generation, to examine himself. His thoughts expounded to Eric Sevareid, onetime heavyweight commentator at CBS, revealed much of American character, historical perspective and primitive insolence. Mr. Reston was proud Americans had as a defining quality that "we have no memory," and this failure proved we were a forward-looking people. (See the New York Times Report From Red China, pp92-4 & 346, Quadrangle Books, 1971)
Fellow of the Society of American Historians, Ronald Takaki, rebuked his countrymen for dropping the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. This stalwart of American scholarship blamed racism. This Berkeley dragoman chastised barbaric white Americans for collecting human ears in the Pacific War. Naturally, he neglected to mention the Japanese practice of cutting ears from heads, whether dead or alive. (See Ronald Takaki, Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Bomb, pp74- 5, Little Brown, 1995.)
When Hideyoshi's warriors invaded Korea some three hundred years earlier, they created as proof of their military prowess a huge pile of human ears that they had sliced off the heads of both prisoners and the dead. Some 38,000 pairs of ears were suitably pickled and stored in the Mimizuka in Kyoto as proof of their ferocity and their valor. (See George Sansom, A History of Japan: 1334-1615, p360, Stanford, 1961)
Only in recent times has this exhibit of Japanese gallantry been closed to the public. Generations of Japanese students had been inspired by verification of martial prowess of their ancestors. Professor Takaki neglected to mention this and obviously thought it not worthwhile. One aspect of the atomic bombing totally neglected by Americans, both liberal and conservative, and Japanese of all persuasions was that the carnage in China was stopped. The Japanese Imperial Army had gone berserk and was slaughtering Chinese in unprecedented numbers. The Chinese have noted their deaths have not been considered worthwhile to remember.
Reviewers of Professor Takaki’s book did not think Japanese atrocities substantial. White racism was what was important. Japanese butchery was forgotten. Edward Gibbon in Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire remembered Mongols filling 9 sacks with right ears of the slain at Lignitz in Poland. (See Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, p484, Vol II, Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952, Vol 41 of Great Books.) Asiatic barbarity against Europeans has never bothered the trend and cultural setters of America. One must suspect Europeans feel differently.
I write these letters (and wrote my book) because I disagree with Reston and believe the American inability to remember is a national disgrace. There is little sense of proportion in public debate. I sense the balance of world power once again shifting to Asia where it has resided for most of human history. The American curse of megalomania is manifesting itself and dragging us into events and places that do not concern us. Yet I feel the war for oil may just be beginning. I have some hope that those who read my book that denies American altruism would have a much more mature interpretation of contemporary history.