Posted August 25, 2001

DOD Wouldn't Endanger Troops

I closely monitor what occurs in the Balkans. I just read Scott Talyor's "Macedonia's Civil War: 'Made in the USA'." I agree the current conflict is a direct result of Secretary Albright's stupidity in Kosovo. However, militants within UCK do not see the US as a source of supply, but more of a source of irritation and increasing opposition. Their willingness to show their weapons as "Made in America" is a means of angering the Macedonian majority into abrogating the ceasefire.

I served in Special Operations as a helicopter pilot and an operations planner. For many years, I worked in and around the Balkans. Recently, I worked with Stratfor.com, a strategic forecasting corporation, on some of their Balkan assessments. I know more than most [about] what's happening, including the personalities involved. ...One of the main reasons I resigned my commission was the Clinton administration's general handling of the Balkan issue and our current involvement of the armed forces in "peacekeeping."

The US is guilty of supporting Croats and Bosnian Muslims against Bosnian Serbs and [and supporting Croatia's] cleansing of the Krajina in 1995, as is becoming readily clear in recent media reports. ... However, the UCK and the KLA receive the majority of their arms from Albania where an AK-47 once sold for less than $12 after the armories were looted by thugs and corrupt officials during the Albanian meltdown (as I recall, that began in 1997). It remains a very prosperous drugs and arms market to this day, concentrating on small arms and heroin. The older Soviet-style equipment is giving way to better made US-style weaponry. The funds they use link these groups to support from the Middle East. The US may be complicit in not illuminating the source of these funds so as not to embarrass friendly nations in that region.

Nevertheless, Scott Taylor is a moron if he honestly thinks the US DOD is going to transport and supply weapons to the UCK and clearly endanger allied NATO troops. Nor does the CIA have the assets in theater to pull this off despite their consistent record of supporting the wrong side in previous conflicts.

~ Corey Walrod

Justin Raimondo replies:

First you say that the Albanians' willingness to show their weapons as "Made in America" is a provocation aimed at the Macedonians – and then, by the end of your letter, you deny that the US is supplying the "rebels" with arms. So, which is it?

I don't know what kind of "work" you were doing "in and around the Balkans," but your assertion that most of the arms come "from Albania" is an evasion, and not a very good one at that. And how, pray tell, did all these weapons with "Made in America" clearly stamped all over them suddenly pop up in Albania? Guns do not just grow out of the ground: somebody is paying for them, and somebody else is supplying them. At most, you aver, the US is guilty of being "complicit in not illuminating the source of these funds so as not to embarrass friendly nations in that region." But the biggest suspect is not anybody in the neighborhood – it is the US. Who funded, trained, and provided invaluable political support to the KLA before and during the Kosovo war? It sure as h*ll wasn't Albania.

Finally, no one specifically pointed to the Department of Defense or the CIA as being culpable for the Macedonian mess. There are plenty of other government agencies – and quasi-governmental entities, such as MPRI, the "private" security agency – that can do the job, and they are swarming all over Macedonia like flies on a carcass.

AntiAmerica.com?

I don't understand why you don't just say that you hate America. Never mind the clever words and presumptions of integrating and analyzing issues. Why not be honest. As you claim Americans are not. Hating America is popular. Hating freedom, ambition, courage and intelligence has ever been the position of the envious and lazy.

No. America is not perfect, but find a place better equipped to offer freedom to those who want to achieve, not to those who want to beg and steal.

~ Marr

Justin Raimondo replies:

There's a lot you don't understand, my friend. I don't remember making the claim that Americans are not honest – only that their government is dishonest. As for freedom to those who want to achieve, I suggest you ask the Klamath farmers about that. Perhaps the dead babies at Waco might be asked the same question. You want begging and stealing? Attend a session of Congress, and you will see beggars and thieves of a highly professional caliber. No, I don't hate America, and neither do any of our employees, columnists, or Board members: what I do hate, however, is the American governing class, which oppresses Americans as well as Macedonians, Serbs, and Iraqis.

Former Source of Hope

My first point has to be to Mr. Blendheim's [letter of August 22, "Reply to Besqa,"] opinion that "Personally, I never thought Macedonia was viable as a nation state right from the beginning."

I would like to point out that The FYR of Macedonia has survived and this year showed sighs of prospering, despite the problems of the region and the actions of its neighbours, right up until the time that the UCK mounted its attack. It was a country that was commended on its democracy and attitude by the international community. To the rest of his opinions I largely agree.

But not so with the person who is "Bored with the Balkans" [Besqa's letter of August 17]. I can only suggest that they turn over to the soaps, they are usually targeted at those with such a limited concentration span, and I would like to applaud Mr. Malics reply.

I would also like to voice my opinion on the situation in Macedonian, past and present. Macedonian (I was reading very carefully) didn't exactly support the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia, it always maintained that its territory would not be used to mount the ground war, was it this or NATO's fear of their troops in body bags or both that meant that compromises were made at the border of Serbia and Macedonia, whereas at Rambouillet they never saw the light of day.

Also, to the best of my knowledge, NATO did not fire even one bullet from Macedonian soil at Macedonia’s request. Could the weakness of Macedonias forces be based largely on the fact that the Macedonian government couldn't conceive of a situation where they would need a substantial army and therefore money was funneled into other areas of greater need, as well as the fact that JNA equipment left the Republic once it declared its Independence.

My chief interest in this country was the fact that it was a source of hope in a region that is frequently misunderstood, I hoped that with the enduring calm and promise of ethnic harmony it would be an example of normality, even as the crisis mounted, I couldn't quite believe it was happening. With the inactions of the cowardly West backing terrorism rather than trying to be neutral, I, and others like me, look on with our hearts breaking.

~ Angela Kurdziel

No Desire to Fling Manhole Covers

From what I can tell of Mr. Earley's most recent letter ["The Curse of Megalomania," August 20] he takes issue with two things I said, but didn't. First, I don't consider China a western power and I never called it one. Second, I didn't quite call Mr. Early somewhat of a racist. I said "His meaning is clear, and perhaps somewhat racist."

Earley has done nothing to change my opinion of his original letter ["Letter Dissected," July 28] in which he begins, "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." His following statements are mostly devoted to noting what ruthless and bloody imperialists the Japanese were (and he's absolutely correct) and how the US has conveniently forgotten it's early praise of, and assistance in, Japanese aggression (wonderful points). But these are not points of evidence that support his contention that Japan should remain occupied by the United States.

His meaning, especially in light of his last sentence, "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," is clearly that because Japan has a bloody 20th century history, and not only committed barbarities in Asia under our watchful and approving eyes, but also had the temerity to attack us, they therefore must remain occupied as a necessary step in preventing their innate monstrous nature from again taking root.

Earley's latest words only confirm that this is indeed what he means. No longer content to point out the vast evils of twentieth century Japan, he brings up barbarities of 400 years ago. He mentions the Kyoto Mimizuka, or Ear Mound, which had it's 400th anniversary in 1997. In truth the memorial is better known in Korea than in Japan, and is a rallying cry of Koreans who fear and hate Japan. Japanese warriors of the time, like many of their western counterparts, would frequently remove body parts to prove their killings to the people back home. Usually these were heads, but it's hard to get so many heads packaged up and shipped over to Japan (perhaps up to 100,000 Koreans are represented in the mound). Instead they took ears and noses (theoretically from the dead, but who really knows). They were briefly displayed to the people, as a warning of the state's power, and then buried and turned into a memorial.

Yes this is gruesome, yes it stemmed from a brutal Japanese attempt to invade China through Korea (they failed), and yes it has in the past been associated with Japanese war pride. But this is no longer the case and ... it is used in Korea to continue the demonization of the Japanese.

Earley's interweaving of Japanese atrocities and America's inability to remember past last Friday is interesting. I can only assume, within the context, that he is trying to say that Asians remember very well what the Japanese did ... and we should too. I don't disagree. I do, however, disagree that this memory should be used, as it is in many Asian countries, to continue the harsh animosity directed against Japan. All that aside, and most important, national memory still wouldn't give the United States of America the right to continue occupying Japan or any other country.

I would like to assure Mr. Earley that I have no desire to fling manhole covers at him. My previous letter was, I think, unnecessarily snide. I regret that, but I ... find the listing of Japanese crimes to be a tired excuse meant to justify the many wrongs committed by the USA ... It's this ... moral righteousness that fuels the appetites of the American public in their support of our own vicious foreign interventions. Aside from this, I quite like many of Earley's points about America and national memory and will pick up his book, which sounds interesting.

~ M. Conklin

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