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Bill wrote:
>>I wonder what meme it is that has Clinton continually saying "no =
ground
>>troops". I can understand screwing around, but why this policy? Of =
what
>>benefit is eliminating this option so publicly?
Jim wrote:
>Bill (Clintin) keeps saying no ground troops so that he may remain =
popular.
>When the time arises. The U.N. will force him into it so he has an out =
and
>will again remain popular( he did not break his promise the other =
countries
>made him).
Er,... you both seem to be overlooking a little thing called NATO, = boys. (Made up of 19 countries, not just one.)
First, understand that there was little or no support for ground troops = here in the U.S. until about a week and a half ago. (Check the polling = data from the end of March/beginning of April.) It might seem like you =always thought it was a good idea to send in ground troop to "stop the = atrocities", but if you think back to about a month ago, to the days = before they started _covering_ (key word) those atrocities in all the = mainstream media, you might find that your opinion was much different at = the time.
Did you support the idea of "sending in the troops" during the peace = talks at Rambouillet? Were you even aware of what was going on in = Kosovo back then? Or even what a "Rambouillet" or a "KLA" was? And if = you'd never seen the tragic (and damn good TV, ratings-wise) footage of = the refugees on the nightly news, would you still have the opinion you = have now?=20
The other 18 countries in NATO are still not of one mind on the issue = and have yet to express support for the idea. This is no small point. = By far, a lot more Germans, Swedes, Brits, Francs, etc. are going to = comprise those ground troops than American solders. If they're the ones = that get to die in the fighting we kinda need a consensus in _their_ = bodies politic, not just ours, don't ya' think?
Yes, we're the big kid on the block and our vote is worth a lot more = than 1/19 in NATO. But if were going to ask the Europeans to do the = dirty work on the ground we should probably wait until their respective = media-mind-control-machines shape the minds of the kids who are going to = do the dying. Just because the American media is so much better at = creating opinion here, don't expect everyone else to get programmed at = the same rate as you!
-Prof. Tim
BTW, the father of a friend of mine is World Vision's associate director =
for public policy and was a human rights observer in Serbia and Kosovo = in 1996 and `98. He's been in Washington D.C. calling for U.S. action = in Kosovo for a while now. I suspect his irony at how many people can =fit on one bandwagon after you point the TV cameras must be overwhelming = right now. Where were all these people last winter?!?
Part of his travel diary from Sept `98 is at: http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/pr.nsf/217a1c6d85845c0085256475000= cc4b9/1152e508352a8f148825668e007b942d?OpenDocument#_3vs_ (yes, that whole blessed thing is the URL--someone needs to have a talk = with their web designer about that!)?
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